August 7, 2023 by Chris Young and filed under News and Public Affairs, Taxes, Transportation.

After an internal investigation revealing appointment fraud, WMNF’s Chris Young reports that the Hillsborough County Tax Collector’s Office is announcing changes to its appointment scheduling system.

Hillsborough County Tax Collector Nancy Millan noticed an influx of complaints this summer.

“We had a number of complaints from folks that were just simply not able to get an appointment online.”

Her office also heard rumors of suspicious activity. So, after launching an investigation, they uncovered the scam. Scammers would book driver’s license appointments in bulk and resell them for a fee.

“There’s a number of things we are doing behind the scenes that hopefully will deter that behavior.”

This includes only allowing one appointment booking per person, and requiring customers to enter their or a parent’s driver’s license number. Customers must confirm that they’re Hillsborough residents before booking, and staff now check that names and IDs match.

Milan hopes this helps curb scammers.

“We want to make sure that people are protected and we are ensuring the integrity of the appointments that we have out there.”

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

See story and listen to audio from 88.5 WMNF here.