King County, PSE Issue Email Scam Warnings

Both Puget Sound Energy and King County have issued email scam warnings this week.

While the fraudulent emails closely copy the appearance of email from the legitimate agencies, they are not. Puget Sound Energy said that the fake email is part of a nationwide phishing scam that sends emails claiming to be from several well-recognized companies like PSE.

King County reports that it county has received calls from people and businesses within and outside of King County, including individuals from other states and countries, who have reported receiving false confirmation of an online property tax payment made through the King County e-commerce system.

The emails were not sent by King County, and the county’s e-commerce system has not been compromised, accordng to the county.

“It appears that someone copied our standard payment confirmation email and altered the header in the email so that it appears to be from King County,” said county spokesman Bill Kehoe. “These messages did not come from King County, and the recipients have not made any payments with us.”

Kehoe added that King County’s e-commerce system is safe. “We have robust protections on all of our information technology systems. The email addresses did not come from our database. Residents can rest easy, knowing that their personal information is secure.”

King County encourages everyone to practice safe computing habits. If you have not made a King County tax payment via the online system, but received an email notification from KingCountyEcommerce@kingcounty.gov, delete it, and do not open any attachments.

King County will also post a message on the property tax payment web site that warns the public about this situation. 

that appears to be a "phishing" scheme -- a way to steal personal information from consumers.

The fraudulent email that mimics a bill-payment notification, the company stated.

The company also said that the email does not affect PSE customer accounts, which are secure.

In its email billing notifications, PSE always addresses its customers by their full name rather than using “Dear Customer,” which is a clue of the fraudulent email. A second indication of the false email is the boldfaced message, “Refer to the attached file," according to to the company.

The Washington State Attorney General's Office has advice to identify potentially fraudulent emails that look like they come from legitimate companies or agencies.

Be very skeptical if you receive an e-mail that looks like it is from your bank, broker, or other trusted company but asks you to verify or re-enter sensitive personal or financial information through e-mail, a Web site they direct you to, or a phone number they provide. Contact the institution using a phone number from a statement or type in a company Web site address in your browser to go to their site and ask about the communication.

The agency lists these telltale signs to spot a phishing e-mail.

• The sender is unknown to you.
• The e-mail is illiterate with grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors.
• You are asked to provide information such as an account number, phone number, or social security number.
• The e-mail address is odd or doesn’t include the business name.  Legitimate businesses have their own domain names (such as aol.com or amazon.com).
• A message contains words like URGENT or SECRET, or includes lots of exclamation marks.