A woman in Seattle, Washington, tried obtaining a temporary password from a local utility company. What she received was a racial slur.
Erica Conway forgot the password to access her Puget Sound Energy (PSE) account, reports The Hill. So, like any person in her predicament, she asked for a temporary password to gain access. However, the website sent her something unexpected.
“I clicked 'forgot password' and got a temporary password from PSE, and it was capital "n***a," and I was quite shocked,” Conway told KIRO 7 on Wednesday, August 1.
Conway, who's a volunteer for the Seattle chapter of the NAACP, didn't believe PSE sent the password by accident. Conway told the news outlet she thought this was deliberate.
“I had said, 'Do you guys screen out certain words?' and Lydia was like, 'Yes, we do.' And I said, 'Well, you guys didn't screen out this word.' And she said, 'Why would we?' and I said, 'What do you mean, "why would we?" This is an offensive word.' And she stated to me, 'No one uses that word anymore.' And I was like, 'where are you living, what planet are you living on?'"
In the past, Conway asked for temporary passwords, and none of the randomly generated passwords came out like the most recent. Janet Kim, a PSE spokesperson, has apologized for the incident on behalf of the energy company.
“These passwords are generated automatically, so they go straight from the system straight to the customers," Kim said to KIRO 7. "So, it's not able to be accessed by an employee.”
Next month, the company will employ a new system that gets rid of temporary passwords to prevent incidents like this from happening again.
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