Wichita County Tax Office warns of car registration scam

The Wichita County Tax Office is alerting residents about a motor vehicle registration scam hitting the area — while there is a temporary waiver for certain title and registration requirements. 

In three instances Friday, residents called the Tax Office to report receiving an offer in the mail to have their motor vehicle registration renewed for them for the nominal fee of $250.25, Tax Assessor and Collector Tommy Smyth said in a media release. 

In all three instances, the amount was $250.25, and the correspondence that residents received had Smyth's name on it, he said. 

"First and foremost, nothing is being mailed from our office to our citizens in regard to any aspect of their motor vehicle registrations," Smyth said. 

Anything mailed to a resident's home in respect to motor vehicle registration will be mailed from the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles in Austin, he said. 

Smyth said this was an obvious scam, and the Tax Office has no involvement whatsoever in it. 

"There is no doubt that someone is attempting to mislead the public that their motor vehicle registrations are now $250.25," Smyth said. 

"Motor vehicle registrations in Texas have been under a moratorium since March of 2020 and there is little doubt that is part of the underlying storyline to this matter," he said. 

The price tag in the scam is far from correct, Smyth said. 

"The cost of an average garden variety motor vehicle registration for a passenger vehicle, light truck or SUV is approximately $74.00," he said. 

"That has not changed and did not change because of the motor vehicle registration suspension that the Governor’s Office enacted back in March," Smyth said. 

In addition, no fines, fees or penalties have been assessed for motor vehicle registrations since March, Smyth said. 

"The cost of your motor vehicle registration renewal is the very same cost that it was when you received it!!" he said. 

A significant number of Wichita County residents and other Texans have had motor vehicle registrations expire since last March and have yet to renew them, Smyth said. 

It appears someone is attempting to profit from that in a ripoff that started hitting mailboxes in Wichita County late last week, he said. 

"We are endeavoring to get more details on this matter as citizens continue to contact our office," Smyth said. 

Staff members appreciate residents who contacted the Tax Office about the scam because they don't ever want them to be taken advantage or incur a loss because of fraud, he said.

What's more, the temporary waiver of certain vehicle title and registration requirements, announced March 16 last year by Gov. Greg Abbott because of the COVID-19 pandemic, remains in effect as of January 2021, Smyth said.

The temporary waiver is slated to end April 14 this year, he said. 

"Our citizens and other citizens across the stare have until April 14, 2021, to complete their transactions," Smyth said. "It is not necessary to wait until the deadline to complete any overdue transactions." 

Residents are encouraged to take advantage of four other alternatives to a walk-in transaction in Tax Office lobbies, he said.

Alternatives are as follows:

• Renew your motor vehicle registrations at any one of the four United Supermarket and Market Street locations in Wichita County. Please check for availability, and remember these services are for motor vehicle registrations only. In addition, the United Supermarket family can only renew registrations that are within the time frame and grace period for the current month of expiration. And please remember no motor vehicle title work and absolutely no property taxes. 
• By mail to the Tax Office. 
• A convenient payment drop box has been installed just inside the Tax Office's utmost southern entrance downtown at 600 Scott Street at the Wichita County Courthouse Annex. 
• The Tax Office's relatively new website at wichitatax.com allows residents to make their property tax payments from any mobile or handheld device.