Pierce County Web Site Put Some Residents At Risk For Theft

A popular south sound Web site has been shut-down because it could put Pierce County residents at risk for theft.

The Tacoma/Pierce County Health Department claims its Web site, which details which homes have had septic work done, is one of its most popular sites. The department said the site is visited by homeowners, real estate agents, contractors and others to learn whether septic systems have been serviced and when.

When a Puyallup man entered his address, he recently found not only the prior homeowner's septic service documents, but the former homeowner’s VISA card number in plain view.

That concerned current homeowner emailed KIRO 7 Consumer Investigators and we alerted the Tacoma Pierce County Health Department.

Joby Winans, a spokesperson for the health department said within an hour of KIRO’s phone call, the site had been taken down.

She said the department posts the information online because it’s very helpful and that county employees scan all septic documents, redacting any potentially harmful information, before those documents are posted.

It “looks like a couple slipped through, and so thanks very much to the member of the public who contacted you, and thanks to KIRO for contacting us so we could take that offline, make sure everything’s secure. Then we’ll figure out a way to get it back online,” Winans said.

She said now 3 million pages of documents are being searched to make sure information that puts homeowners at risk for theft, or even identity theft, is not posted.

Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna said this is just one example of how most victims of ID and credit card fraud have no idea how their information is stolen.

“The reason that most people don’t know their information is vulnerable is that they aren’t aware that public documents that they fill out and other forms they fill out can end up on websites,” McKenna said. “Obviously, some information is falling through the cracks, as we saw with the Pierce County Health Department.”

McKenna suggests that before you submit a hard-copy document to a utility or anyone else, ask if you can redact the document yourself first and then submit it.