The Bismarck-Mandan Convention and Visitors Bureau wants to inform consumers about a fake website appearing to present itself as that of the CVB.
CVB CEO Sheri Grossman says the website is set up to look very legitimate and even uses a domain name that looks real. She says the fraudulent web address is www.bismarck-mandancvb.org, but the real web address is www.NoBoundariesND.com. She wants to warn consumers to stay away from the fraudulent website because whoever is running this site might be trying to grab funds from legitimate organizations, or collect and sell internet users information when they visit the site.
"It is very concerning because it is coming way up high on searches. We have reported it to the domain registrant, and of course we have reported it to the North Dakota Attorney General's Office as well. The best thing to do is not to go to that website at all so they can't start capturing your information. That's why as soon as we learned about it we contacted those organizations, and wanted to get a media release out right away because it is very concerning. It's coming out, depending on what search engine you use, near the top and it does look very legit. One person was looking for my phone number and didn't have it handy, so they searched for a website - and that's actually how we found out about it."
Grossman says it is not known who is behind the creation of the fraudulent website.