AUGUSTA – The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife cares about the Maine outdoors and those who enjoy it, so the department is reminding all who buy a sporting license or registration to make sure it is from the trusted and secure Maine.gov website.
“This type of ‘phishing’ has no place when it comes to Maine’s outdoors, so we would like to remind all of those who purchase a license or registration to use the Maine.gov website. It’s simple and secure,” said IFW Commissioner Chandler Woodcock.
Other websites that are not accessed through Maine.gov or www.mefishwildlife.com could direct users to services that are not required, provide incorrect information, charge users for services not needed, or even gather personal information in a phishing scheme.
All State agencies and their online services can be accessed by typing in www.maine.gov in your browser’s URL address bar. This address should be typed in directly, as it is the safest way to access Maine government services. You can also type in IFW’s URL address, www.mefishwildlife.com, which is part of maine.gov.
“We have been providing outdoor licenses and other online services safely and securely since 2001,” says Woodcock. “We conduct 350 thousand online transactions each year. Maine.gov is the only place to buy your sporting licenses and registrations online.”
For 2015, the department sold over 330,000 fishing licenses and over 225,000 hunting licenses. It was the fifth straight year of increasing sales for hunting licenses. The number of fishing licenses has increased in 11 out of the past 12 years.
The online service provider for state agencies is the Information Resource of Maine, known as “InforME,” which manages the official State of Maine website. Online transactions via www.mefishwildlife.com or www.maine.gov direct users to the “Informe.org” websites, which are legitimate and secure.
The Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife offers many online services using the secure InforME portal, including fishing and hunting licenses, recreational vehicle registrations, official IFW logo merchandise, game permits, and donations for nongame and endangered species, wildlife management and the landowner relations program.
