Description

I went online to renew my United States passport and found a site called passportsubmission.us that looked like an official government service. The page used government style language and walked me through what looked like the DS 82 renewal process. It asked for all the information you would expect on a passport application, including full legal name, home address, date and place of birth, parents names, Social Security number, and contact details. After filling everything out, the site required payment for what it described as a passport renewal service and charged my American Express card about $129.00. Only after the payment went through did I realize this site is not connected to the United States Department of State and is not a real passport agency. The confirmation did not come from a .gov email address, there were no clear instructions about mailing my renewal to the official processing center, and the customer contact number on the site was 978 971 0688. I have received no legitimate passport service at all. This site appears to exist only to collect sensitive personal information and charge a fee by pretending to be the government passport renewal website. I am disputing the charge with my card issuer and reporting this so others know to avoid this site and use only the official travel.state.gov website for passport renewal.