PENDLETON — Umatilla County’s tax collector is warning of a potential tax scam to get money from residents by posing as the county’s tax processing unit.

The fraudulent notice from issuer “J.S. Brown,” poses as a “final notice” that says the state of Oregon can seize assets and garnish wages and bank accounts due to unpaid tax liability. It says the state can “permanently revoke benefits, suspend licenses, and levy any federal tax refund gained this year” if action isn’t taken.

But the notice, according to Rachael Reynolds, Umatilla County’s assessment and taxation director, did not come from the assessor’s office and lacks the county’s insignia.

“It’s definitely not ours,” she said.

Also, Reynolds said, the state of Oregon does not garnish wages or bank accounts.

Officials in San Bernardino, California, and Bedford, Indiana, have raised warnings over the potential scheme from J.S. Brown.

Reynolds said people with questions should call her office at 541-278-6234. People who receive the scam should not call the phone number on the document or send any money.

Sondra Sundquist, a bookkeeper in Walla Walla, brought the notice to the attention of the county. The notice from J.S. Brown warns a Milton-Freewater business it needs to pay $10,000 in penalties for tax liability. But to her, it felt off.

“It looks, front and back, all nice and formal and official,” she said. “But when people send me notices and say, ‘Hey, you have a couple days to send me $10,000,’ I kind of pay attention.”

She added that, because it is near the end of the quarter, “this is the time of year that those notices are being sent out.”