The Miami-Dade tax collector, Dariel Fernandez, issued a warning to county residents after receiving reports of individuals who obtained appointment confirmations through a website outside the official system and later found that those appointments were not valid.
Fernandez explained this Friday in a post on X that the reports are related to ZipAppointments.com, a platform that offers appointments for services at locations that may appear to be associated with the Miami-Dade Tax Collector's Office.
“These appointments were not made through the official system of the Miami-Dade County Tax Collector’s Office and are not valid appointments with our office,” she warned.
The Tax Collector's Office confirmed the alert and noted that residents have arrived at their facilities with confirmations issued by ZipAppointments that are not registered in the official system.
Fernandez asked the public to not provide personal information, make payments, or book appointments through unofficial websites.
"Protecting our residents also means ensuring they know where to access our services safely," he noted.
The only portal recognized by the office for managing your appointments directly is mdctaxcollector.gov. From there, users can select the appropriate option to schedule a visit to the offices managed by the tax collector.
Fernandez also recommended that anyone who has already received a confirmation via ZipAppointments or another external platform should verify the supposed appointment before heading to an office.
To do this, the institution has enabled the number (305) 375-5448, the same official phone number published by the Miami-Dade Tax Collector's Office.
The public broadcaster WLRN reported this week that the issue came to light after individuals began showing up at the offices with third-party confirmations that did not correspond to existing appointments in the county's system.
"No family should provide personal information, pay an external website, or take a day off work for an appointment that does not exist in our system," Fernandez had warned in a statement released by his office.
The issue of intermediaries and irregular appointments is not new in Miami-Dade.
In 2025, for example, county authorities approved measures against the resale of appointments for driver's licenses after detecting networks that hoarded free appointments using bots and fake accounts to later offer them to residents for money.
Subsequently, Florida tightened the consequences against those who resold appointments, amid efforts to curb a business that had caused long waits and difficulties in accessing free services.
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