by - Florida DMV visit offenders are using bots to take up slots, reselling them for up to $250.
- These offenders cause delays and inflated prices, making it difficult for local residents to get appointments.
- Miami-Dade Tax Collector Darlène Fernandez pledges to stop them by ensuring equal access to services.
Imagine you need to , and then discover that there are no available slots. Does this sound familiar? This is exactly what many Florida residents have been facing recently. And, for some reason, many have decided that paying hundreds of dollars to book an appointment is a smart choice. Enter the offenders profiting from this chaos – and now they are beginning to feel the heat.
This heat is not only from the sun. It’s also from Miami-Dade Tax Collector Darlène Fernandez, who says they have uncovered the entire scheme. “We know who they are and how they operate. We will not accept any appointments that were obtained through system abuse,” said Fernandez. “Our office is committed to ensuring that all residents have fair and equal access to services without interference from those attempting to exploit the system.”
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According to , “Lines outside state DMV offices can form overnight before obtaining slots without prior appointments, and people report having to wait months to get meetings.” This definitely makes me feel a lot better about my two-hour in-person visit at the DMV in Arkansas. Especially when considering how the offenders carried out their scheme. They were reportedly using bots to grab appointments as soon as the state made them available.
Afterward, they sold the appointments to citizens for amounts ranging from $25 to $250 per slot. Essentially, people were spending money just to deal with one of the least pleasant places on earth. That said, the entire situation seems to be nearing an end.
“We are taking precautions to enhance our technology and processes to combat this issue,” Fernandez added. “However, it is extremely important to have a legal framework to punish wrongdoing and deter this practice altogether.”
To this end, the state has introduced a new bill that allows it to punish offenders with a $500 fine per violation. In fact, the definition of a violation is quite broad and covers those who advertise the sale of public service appointments, those who list them, or those who post them.
