City of Kalamazoo Issues Warning About Fake Invoice Scam

Published on September 11, 2025

The City of Kalamazoo is alerting residents and businesses to a scam involving fraudulent invoices that appear to come from the City. Recently, two area businesses reported receiving fake invoices claiming to be from the City of Kalamazoo’s Planning Department. These invoices used publicly available information to appear legitimate, but were in fact fraudulent attempts to steal money.

Scammers are attempting to trick recipients into sending payments through wire transfers. The City of Kalamazoo does not accept wire transfers for any payments.

The City encourages residents and businesses to carefully verify invoices before making any payment. Steps they can take include:

• Verify the sender’s email address. All legitimate City of Kalamazoo emails come from an address ending in @kalamazoocity.org. Check the full email address, not just the display name, as scammers often create lookalike domains. Examples of suspicious non-official domains include: Kalama.zoocity.org, Kalamazooci.ty.org, Cityofkalamazoo.com, Cityofkalam.azoo.com, Kalamazoo-mi.com, Kalamazoocity-org.com, Cityof-kalamazoo.org, or Kalamazoo.org.
• Check your records. If you did not request a service, permit, or product from the City, be cautious about paying.
• Look for unusual payment instructions. The City will never ask you to wire money. Payments are made online through official City portals, by mail, or in person.
• Examine the invoice carefully. Typos, inconsistent formatting, or generic language may signal a fake. Because some City service information is publicly available, scammers may include real details (such as project names or addresses) to make an invoice appear convincing.
• Confirm directly with the City. If you receive an unexpected or suspicious invoice, do not respond to it. Instead, call 311 (or 269-337-8000 from outside the city) to confirm.
• Avoid clicking on attachments or links. These may contain harmful software or lead to fraudulent websites.

The City of Kalamazoo investigates all scam complaints and refers cases to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) with details that may help protect others from being targeted.

“Protecting our community from fraud is a priority,” said Tim Dubois, Chief Information Officer for the City. “Unfortunately, scammers continue to get more sophisticated. We urge businesses and residents to be cautious, verify all correspondence, and contact the City if they have any doubts about an invoice.”

If you receive a suspicious invoice, email, or payment request claiming to be from the City of Kalamazoo, please report it immediately by calling 311 or 269-337-8000.

Scam Invoice and Email Example(PDF, 423KB)