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 credit card $129. Only after the payment went through and I received notification from the state department that the site I used was not affiliated with them 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 but a .us address. 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. My husband had used the same site and received notification before I did from the state department. He called the company. After a lengthy discussion, they finally said they would “request” a refund through their accounting department. They stated if it was approved he would receive an email from them within 24-48 hours and if it was NOT approved he WOULD NOT receive and email. When we questioned that, they said, “ that’s just our policy” . When we asked shouldn’t we receive notification whether it was or was not approved, they again stated they only sent out emails if it WAS approved. When we asked whom we should call if we did not receive an email, we were told there was no more recourse. Total scam.