Appointment Fraud Rampant At Inundated Hillsborough Tax Collector

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, FL — The Hillsborough County Tax Collector’s office is warning residents about third parties fraudulently selling driver’s license appointments at tax collector’s offices throughout the county.

Following an internal investigation that revealed scammers are taking advantage of residents by bulk booking driver’s license appointments and reselling them to residents in need of services for a fee, the tax collector’s office announced changes to its appointment scheduling system.

With 1,520,529 new residents moving to Hillsborough County in 2020 and an estimated 461,371 residents settling in the county between 2021 and 2050, Hillsborough County Tax Collector Nancy Millan said her offices have been inundated with demands for services, with residents having to wait weeks to get appointments just for new driver’s licenses.

Hillsborough County has the third-largest population in Florida, with approximately 1.5 million residents, and is projected to reach 1.6 million by 2025. With so many new residents migrating to the region, the need for tax collector services, particularly driver’s licenses, titles and registrations, is in high demand,” said Millan. The Tax Collector’s Office continues to expand service capacity and

“Our office is the first point of contact for new residents in the county — from getting a Florida driver’s license to registering your vehicles and even registering to vote,” said Millan.

She added that the tax collector also provides services for active military members moving to the county, “including everything needed for a permanent or temporary relocation to Hillsborough County as well as military discounts and exemptions for service members.”

MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa has over 12,000 active-duty military on the base including members of the 6th Air Mobility Wing and more than 50 other mission partners, the United States Central Command and the United States Special Operations Command.

Other services in high demand include driver’s licenses for non-citizens due to the newly passed immigration reform bill, which went into effect July 1; mobile home registration, disability parking permits, motor vehicle title and tag registration, boat registration, hunting and fishing licenses, homestead property tax exemptions, business and intangible property taxes.

With eight tax collector offices and 369 employees, the tax collector’s call center fielded over 600,000 calls in 2021, according to the 2022 annual report.

Following an influx of complaints regarding a lack of appointment availability and tips that third parties were selling appointments, the tax collector’s office launched an investigation which revealed a pattern of daily appointments being reserved under identical names and email addresses.

While an appointment is not required to visit the tax collector’s office for most services, residents can reserve appointments on the tax collector’s website up to 30 days in advance at no charge.

Millan said her office’s investigation found that third parties are monitoring the scheduling software and immediately snapping up available appointments, possibly through the use of artificial intelligience and bots, preventing residents from accessing available appointment slots.

“This fraudulent behavior by individuals who are exploiting residents and denying them access to essential services is unacceptable,” she said. “Unfortunately, appointment selling has become a growing trend across the nation, and in Hillsborough County, we are committed to putting an end to this interference and restoring fair and equitable access to services for all residents.”

Upon discovering that appointments were being sold, Millan contacted the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office to investigate. The sheriff’s office believes the scammers are targeting minority populations, with most of the suspected “sold” appointments taking place in the Hispanic community that’s most impacted by the new immigration laws requiring identification to work, drive and access medical services in Florida.

Debra Bellanti, communications director for the tax collector’s office, said some customers have been approached in the parking lots at tax collector’s offices.

“From what we gathered from reports from customers, (they’re being contacted) by word of mouth, by phone, by social media. It has also been reported that customers have been approached in our parking lots,” she said.

Several residents told Patch that they’ve received flyers offering driver’s license appointments for sale at Hispanic farmer’s markets, cultural events and other gathering places, on doors in predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods and at workforce day labor sites as well.

To combat this fraud, the tax collector has implemented several changes to improve the integrity of appointment booking and to better serve Hillsborough County residents.

Changes to the appointment booking process include:

One booking per person per email address. The new system only allows one appointment booking per person. The limitation aims to prevent the mass booking of appointments by unauthorized entities.

Enhanced verification process. During the booking process, customers are required to enter their driver’s license number, a parent’s driver’s license number for minors or an alien registration number.

Residency requirements. Appointments are exclusively reserved for Hillsborough County residents and customers are required to confirm this before booking.

In-person confirmation. In accordance with these changes, staff at the tax collector’s branch offices check residency and ensure the names and ID numbers provided at the time of the appointment booking match upon arrival at the office. If they do not match, the appointment will not be honored.

“The Hillsborough County Tax Collector’s office prides ourselves on ensuring residents have access to services in a timely, efficient and convenient manner. Our goal is to make the process as smooth as possible, and the modifications to the booking system will allow us to meet the growing service demands and protect residents from fraudulent activity,” said Millan.

Additionally, the tax collector’s office continues to expand its service capacity and streamline operations using new technologies to accommodate the population growth, Millan said.

More staff have been hired to increase the capacity for driving tests, and an expansion project at the North Tampa branch, set to reopen in September, will include an additional 5,000 square feet of service space.

Innovative technologies, such as Pocketalk language translation devices, are now available at all service locations. Self-service and virtual agent stations at the Plant City branch have freed up staff resources to assist additional customers remotely at the contact center and will be implemented at the Southshore and North Tampa locations in the coming months.

The tax collector encourages residents to take advantage of online services when possible, including online driver’s license and registration renewals.

Customers can access in-person services at eight locations throughout the county. Offices are open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Wednesdays.

Driver’s license services are available until 3:30 p.m.

Tax collector’s offices are located at:

• AAA Westshore, 1701 N Westshore Blvd., Tampa.
• Brandon, 3030 N Falkenburg Road, Tampa.
• Downtown (Main), 601 E Kennedy Blvd., County Center, 14th floor, Tampa. Parking is available in the County Center Garage, 710 E Jackson St., Tampa.
• Drew Park, 4100 W Martin Luther King. Jr. Blvd., Tampa.
• East Tampa, 2814 E Hillsborough Ave., Tampa.
• North Tampa, 3011 University Center Drive, Suite 150, Tampa. Note: The North Tampa is currently closed for renovation. However, the tax collector has set up a temporary location right next to the existing space, offering limited services.
• Plant City, 4706 Sydney Road, Plant City.
• Southshore, 406 30th St. SE, Ruskin.