Washington Vehicle Registration/washington

Victim Location 98272

Type of a scam Phishing

When I searched for vehicle tab renewal online, the scammer’s website appeared in top results. Although they do walk you through formal legalistic steps to acknowledge your understanding that you are dealing with a 3rd party unaffiliated with a government agency, it wasn’t sufficient for me to realize that is what I was doing. I was fooled and I suspect it was intentional on the scammer’s part.

I am not sure if their business is in collecting the extra $20 that they charge on top of the license fees (and obfuscate the up-charge) or in collecting and reselling personally identifiable information (PII).

According to their Customer Support e-mail, they immediately refunded the charges upon receiving my request to do so. That is still to be determined: I’ll have to check with my Credit Card provider. My main concern is that my PII is not safe with them: I don’t imagine it’s profitable to bum $20 here and there and hope to keep some of it. I strongly suspect their true business is to re-sell my PII and the PII of other people they manage to fool.