So I Googled “us passport renewal.” Over 12 million hits were returned, so I started near the top of the first page and clicked on a link that contained a blurb about quick and easy U.S. passport renewals. I scrolled through the first couple of pages, and it looked like there were several options and prices, depending on whether it was a new or renewal passport, and whether I wanted a regular or an expedited time frame.
I noticed that the Web site was very official-looking. It had an eagle crest along the top, a U.S. flag motif and other trappings of a bonafide U.S. government site. I started filling out the online forms, and they were very straightforward. As I got to the page requesting payment, I began to have a few doubts. First, there were several options and payment amounts, depending on turnaround times. The fee schedule on this particular site listed $99 for a routine adult renewal, plus an additional $25 or $50 for “expedited” turnaround. And they take credit cards. Cool! But then there was this little phrase that followed – “plus government fee.”
I wondered what that fee was, and at first I figured it was maybe a postage or processing fee or something. But then I clicked on the link associated with that phrase and found out that the government fee was $75. One doesn’t renew their passport very often (every decade or so), so I wasn’t exactly sure how much a passport renewal should cost, but with some quick mental math, $150 seemed a little steep.
So I began to look more closely at the site. That’s when I discovered it was not a .gov website, it was a .org. It had a legitimate sounding domain name, like usimmigrationsupport.org, and had U.S. flags and official-looking seals and references to various government forms and regulations. But it was not an official U.S. government site. In fact, upon closer inspection, right under the banner stating “US Immigration Support” in big blue block letters was a phrase in much smaller print, white against a black background, “An Independent Organization, Not a U.S. Government Agency.”
So I went back to the original Google search results page, and, sure enough, a few results down from the top, www.travel.state.gov. There, in plain English and straightforward forms, was the process for passport renewal. The actual fees were $75, and they don’t take credit cards.
The lesson here is to watch out for sites that take advantage of users who are doing something in a hurry, something they do rarely and without really checking, and without noticing that they may be on a site that is similar to — but very different from — the site they thought they were on.
I am pretty sure the Web site itself was actually legitimate, as it had the proper Verisign and other security certificates, (in other words it wasn’t harvesting my personal info), but who knows? In any event, paying nearly double the government fee for using a different website seems like a rip-off.
In healthcare, sometimes you have to search for Web sites for new or seldom-used business partners. It is always best to type in the actual domain name rather than use a search engine, and if you must use a search engine, you should carefully examine the attributes of the Web sites it presents, to avoid getting to the wrong one.
Marion K. Jenkins, PhD, is founder and CEO of QSE Technologies, which provides IT consulting services for ASCs and other medical facilities nationwide. Learn more about QSE Technologies at www.qsetech.com.
