Too Good to be True?
A cheap deal could end up costing you much more. It might be fraud.
Be wary of freelance websites, where some unlicensed people create convincing profiles that falsely claim to offer licensed, professional engineering services.
Fraudsters are increasingly luring homeowners and consumers by selling fake engineering plans online. These plans often use stolen professional seals, license numbers or signatures. Appearances can be deceiving.
In many of these cases, the plans were not created by a licensed professional engineer. They might have been copy/pasted from another project or were created by AI. That means they could have serious mistakes, fail to meet code requirements, or even create safety risks.
Remember, they may:
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use stolen professional seals, signatures, or license numbers
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or have outright fake credentials
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deliver unsafe, poor-quality plans, or simply disappear after getting paid
Unfortunately, these scams are difficult to track and stop.
How can you protect yourself?
Before hiring anyone:
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search for a local, licensed professional engineer
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talk with them on the phone
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get their license number
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verify it through our License Lookup here
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Select “Advanced Search”
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Choose the license type “Professional Engineer”
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Search by the person’s name or license number
Most important, by talking with them, it can help you avoid fraud and make sure your project is in the hands of a qualified professional.
If you are the victim of ID Theft/Fraud, as a consumer or a licensee, there are some things you can do to curb the problem.
You can file a report with any number of federal and state agencies. For example, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) website says it enforces federal consumer protection laws to prevent fraud, deception and unfair business practices. In total, the FTC has enforcement or administrative responsibilities under more than 70 laws. Reports are shared with more than 2,800 law enforcers.
However, the FTC does not respond to each report individually or take action on behalf of individual consumers. The FTC uses the reports to investigate and bring cases against fraud, scams and bad business practices. Other agencies may have similar practices. Here are some links to those sites:
FBI
The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) is the central hub for reporting cyber-enabled crime. It is run by the FBI, the lead federal agency for investigating crime.
FTC.gov
“Protect your community by reporting fraud, scams and bad business practices.”
https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/assistant
USA.gov
Fraud reporting form to fill out as well, which takes about 2 – 5 minutes to complete.
https://www.usa.gov/where-report-scams/identity-scam#block-usagov-content
econsumer.gov
Econsumer.gov, a project of the International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network (ICPEN), is a partnership of more than 65 consumer protection agencies around the world.
Report international scams and take more steps to resolve your complaint. Your complaint helps consumer protection agencies spot trends and work together to prevent international fraud.
https://econsumer.gov/assistant?lang=en-US
State of Washington Attorney General’s Consumer Fraud Protection Department
https://fortress.wa.gov/atg/formhandler/ago/ComplaintForm.aspx
For Licensed Engineers:
- monitor online freelance platforms for misuse of your credentials
- for digitally signed documents, use a secure app with identity validation and audit trails
- for physical documents, be aware of forgery techniques like using a deceased engineer's credentials
We'll be adding more resources and info in the coming weeks and months.