The Top Search Result for "Renew My Passport" Was Not the Government

Search for how to apply for a new passport and the first thing on the page is usually an advertisement. The FTC sued two companies this month over exactly that position, alleging they appeared as top sponsored results for queries like "apply for a new passport" and "passport renewal online" while presenting themselves as a government service.

What many customers got, in the FTC's own words, was only a completed passport application they could have obtained for free. The State Department fee was still due afterwards, separately.

Look Behind the Curtain

The mechanism has three parts, and each one is designed to survive the caution most people already have.

The first is the position. Nobody taught us that the top of a search page is a paid slot rather than the most authoritative answer. Buying that spot for government-service queries is legal, and the only thing marking it is a small label most people read past.

The second is the price. The FTC alleges the companies advertised services starting at $89, while the lowest price actually offered was $119 plus a $29 shipping fee, for a total of $148. The agency also alleges the additional payment owed to the State Department was omitted or downplayed, so some customers did not understand they would be paying twice. Read that structure carefully, because it recurs across this whole category: a headline price that is not available, and a government fee that is not mentioned.

The third is speed. The complaint alleges promises of expedited service in as little as six to ten business days, or three to four, which is faster than the State Department's own fastest expedited option. A private company cannot make the government work faster than the government works. If a promised turnaround beats the official one, the promise is the product.

Two details round out the picture. The FTC alleges the operation concealed complaints with fake positive reviews, including an excellent rating on a review platform said to rest on large numbers of fake ones. And it alleges the owner ran this while already under an FTC order from a previous, unrelated case. The charges include the FTC Act, the Impersonation Rule and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. These are allegations, and the case has not been decided.

The Capability Multiplier

The defense here is one habit, and it covers every government service rather than this one scheme.

Never arrive at a government service through a search result. Type the address yourself. Federal services live on addresses ending in .gov, and the handful you need are short enough to learn: travel.state.gov for passports, ssa.gov for Social Security, irs.gov for taxes, medicare.gov for Medicare, dmv plus your state for a license. If you cannot remember which, go to usa.gov, which is the government's own directory, and start from there.

That single rule disarms the position, the price and the promise at once, because you never see the advertisement.

Where an assistant genuinely helps is before you spend anything. Ask it what the official fee for a service is, what the official processing time is, and which agency website handles it, then verify the answer on the .gov page itself. Having the real number in your head is what makes a $148 charge for a free form look as strange as it is. What an assistant should not do is pick the link for you, because it may be reading the same sponsored page you were about to click.

If paperwork is genuinely the obstacle, paying someone to fill a form is a legitimate choice. Just know you are buying typing, not access, and that the government fee is still ahead of you.

The Sovereign Action

Use it on the paperwork. Open the law yourself.

• Type government addresses directly. Passports at travel.state.gov, benefits at ssa.gov, taxes at irs.gov, Medicare at medicare.gov. Use usa.gov as the directory when you are unsure.
• Treat the first search result for any government service as an advertisement until proven otherwise, and scroll past the sponsored block.
• Look up the official fee and official processing time before paying anyone. A promise faster than the government's own fastest option is not possible.
• Distrust a glowing review score on a service you reached through an ad. The FTC alleges this operation bought its rating.
• If you already paid, dispute the charge with your card issuer and file at reportfraud.ftc.gov. You may still owe the real agency fee.