FTC Sues Perpetrators of Government Impersonation Scheme Over Deceptive Ads, Misleading Promises and Fake Reviews

The Federal Trade Commission is taking action against GovAssist LLC, Entry LLC and Scott Zuckerman, for their alleged involvement in a government impersonation scheme that deceived consumers seeking passport services by purporting to be the federal government or affiliated with the federal government.

The FTC alleges the operation uses deceptive paid search ads to impersonate the government or pretend to be affiliated with the government to lure travelers seeking passport services to defendants' websites and makes false service promises to obtain consumers' financial and personal information.

"Using paid Google search ads and landing pages to impersonate the government and target American travelers is illegal," said Christopher Mufarrige, Director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. "Today's action should serve as a stark warning that the FTC will pursue all bad actors participating in search advertising schemes that mislead consumers, distort competition, or otherwise violate the FTC Act."

Since at least October 2023, GovAssist, Entry and Zuckerman have allegedly hosted a series of websites including GovAssist.com, Entry.com and IVS.us to offer passports and passport-related services, as well as other travel-related services such as visa applications and visa renewals, while pretending to be affiliated with the U.S. State Department.

The complaint alleges the defendants violate the law by:

• Illegally impersonating the government. The defendants use paid Google search ads to position their websites where consumers would expect to find and access official federal government websites and services. When consumers run Google searches with such phrases as "apply for a new passport," "get a new passport," "how can I renew my passport," "passport renewal," and "passport renewal online," Google routinely displays the defendants' IVS.us and Entry.com online passport application pages as top sponsored results. GovAssist and Entry led consumers to believe that they were dealing with the federal government or an authorized government-affiliated provider even though the defendants are neither the federal government nor an authorized government-affiliated provider of passport-related services.
• Making false promises about passport services. The defendants make various service promises they do not fulfill, including that they can directly issue U.S. passports. In many instances, consumers receive only a completed passport application they could have obtained for free from the State Department website. The defendants also make misleading claims about their prices, including that their services start at $89. In fact, the lowest price they offer is $119 plus a $29 shipping fee, for a total of $148. The defendants prominently display their prices, while omitting or downplaying the additional payment needed for the State Department. As a result, some consumers do not understand they will have to pay again when they submit their application to the State Department. Finally, the defendants make misleading claims about their delivery timelines. The defendants deceive users by claiming consumers can pay extra to get their passports expedited in as little as 6-10 business days or 3-4 business days. These expedited service promises are false, however, because they are faster than the fastest possible expedited service offered by the only source for passports - the U.S. State Department.
• Touting services with fake reviews. The defendants have attempted to conceal their scheme from consumers with fake positive consumer reviews to make their passport-related services appear legitimate. The defendants prominently tout on their websites that they have an "excellent rating" based on numerous consumer reviews on Trustpilot, an online review platform where the public can post customer reviews and other review sites, when in fact their rating is based on high numbers of fake positive reviews.

The FTC alleges the defendants' actions violate the FTC Act, the Impersonation Rule and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act.

Individual defendant Zuckerman, the owner and sole member of GovAssist and Entry, ran this scheme while under an FTC order in a prior, unrelated case (Support King LLC). The previous case involved stalkerware and resulted in a final administrative order addressing data privacy.

FTC staff would like to thank the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Department of State for their assistance on this matter.

The Commission vote authorizing the staff to file the complaint was 2-0. The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico.

NOTE: The Commission files a complaint when it has "reason to believe" that the named defendants are violating or are about to violate the law and it appears to the Commission that a proceeding is in the public interest. The case will be decided by the court.