HOUSTON — Is Harris County sending out emails asking people to confirm which COVID-19 shot they got? A couple of people emailed the Verify team after receiving the request. They wanted to know if it is real.
Steve wrote the Verify team concerned when he got an email that looked like it was from Harris County Public Health asking for a copy of his vaccine card and other information like his address.
He told us, "The attached message looks like a very good phishing email to me. It seems like they should already have my information. I notice there’s no phone number and that the address is hctx.net, not harriscountytx.gov. If this is phishing, people should be warned, because it’s very slick."
We have two sources for this. Harris County Public Health and the Texas Department of State Health Services.
DSHS says when someone gets their shot, the vaccine provider is required to enter their information into ImmTrac2, the state’s vaccination immunization system. There are a couple of different ways they can do this. By entering the data into an online portal from their own electronic health reporting system, or by submitting data files to the state.
Harris County Public Health tells the Verify team they are sending letters to people who appear to have incomplete or incorrect information in their records so that they can complete that process.
They wrote the verify team, “Yes, the message would be sent on behalf of Harris County Public Health from a county email address which ends in phs.hctx.net.”
So, we can Verify that the email is legit.
Not everyone will get the letter. Harris County says they are only sending the request to people who were vaccinated at one of its public health sites.