The Town of Dedham is alerting residents, applicants, contractors, and local businesses about ongoing phishing scams involving fraudulent emails that falsely request payment for permits, taxes, or outstanding invoices. In several recent cases, scammers have impersonated Town staff or referenced applications before local Boards and Committees, such as the Planning Board, to appear legitimate.

Most recently, emails pretending to be from the Town have been sent from "planning.dedhamma.gov@usa.com" and are seeking payment for This is NOT a Town email address! Do not open emails from this address or click on any links, and immediately report them as spam or phishing.

See example below of scam invoice sent via email (click to enlarge)

Please be aware that the Town of Dedham will never request sensitive personal information, passwords, or financial payments, especially wire transfers, via an unsolicited email.

Pay close attention to the email sender and reply‑to address. Scammers often use domains that may look familiar as they are made to mimic legitimate ones.

Watch out for:

• Email domains that look similar to trusted domains but contain subtle character changes (e.g., replacing an “O” with a “0,” using “dornain” instead of “domain,” or swapping letters such as U for A)
• Suspicious or unfamiliar domains that appear to imitate common providers (e.g., “@micorsoft-support[.]com” instead of “@microsoft[.]com”)
• Grammar mistakes, inconsistent fonts, or formatting irregularities

By design, some of these changes may be minor and hard to miss, so when in doubt, don’t click on anything and give us a call.

Legitimate Town of Dedham communications may come from the following domains:

• @dedhamma.gov
• @opengov.com (Dedham’s online permitting/licensing portal)
• @invoicecloud.net
• @dedham.k12.ma.us (Dedham Public Schools)
• @public.govdelivery.com (Town email notification system)

• Do NOT reply
• Do NOT open attachments or click links
• Do NOT send payment or personal/financial information
• Mark the message as Spam/Phishing
• Delete the email

If you believe you may have responded to a fraudulent email or provided personal information:

• Contact the Dedham Police Department at 781-326-1212 to file a report