KINGMAN – The City of Kingman is warning residents, businesses, developers, contractors, and property owners about fraudulent emails impersonating city departments and staff. The emails appear to target individuals involved in development projects, rezoning cases, permits, public hearings, and other planning and development matters. Many include publicly available project details and official-looking language intended to appear legitimate.
The city has identified that scammers may be using information from publicly posted agendas and public hearing documents to create phishing emails and fraudulent payment requests. Official city email communications will only come from the @cityofkingman.gov domain.
“These scams are becoming increasingly sophisticated and are impacting municipalities across the country,” said the city’s Information Technology Director, Gerry Delgado. “Because these emails may contain real project information, it is important to verify communications before responding or submitting payment.”
The city encourages the public to:
• Carefully review sender email addresses
• Be cautious of unexpected invoices, payment requests, attachments, or links
• Verify suspicious communications by contacting city departments directly through the city’s official website
• Avoid providing sensitive financial or personal information unless the request has been confirmed as legitimate
• Consider using the SmartGov user portal to make payments towards development fees and other city services where available.
The city reminds the public that meeting agendas and public hearing information are public records required to be posted under Arizona law. Unfortunately, scammers are increasingly using publicly available information to make fraudulent communications appear credible.
Anyone who receives a suspicious email appearing to come from the City of Kingman is encouraged to contact the relevant department directly before responding or submitting payment.
