King County officials are warning residents of an apparent email scam that has some residents wondering about their property tax payments.

According to a news release issued by the county Thursday, county officials have 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. These emails were not sent by King County, and the county’s e-commerce system has not been compromised.

“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,” Bill Kehoe, the county’s chief information officer, said in a news release. “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.”

King County encourages residents to practice safe computing habits. Residents who have not made a county tax payment via the online system but received an email notification from KingCountyEcommerce@kingcounty.gov should delete it and not open any attachments.

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