“The dc.gov website leads me to a .com site that asks for my full ssn. Does anyone know if this is safe?”

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by Prince Of Petworth May 12, 2016 at 10:55 am 15 Comments

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“Dear PoPville,

After having been requested for proof of residency two weeks back I wanted to check on the status of my state tax return. The dc.gov website leads me to a .com site that asks for my full ssn. Does anyone know if this is safe?”

Greg McE

It’s a real site, yes.
Formerly ParkViewRes

I certainly hope it’s safe because I check it every day!! GIVE ME MY MONEY DC! I mean both the SSN and the refund amount are masked.
AlanInDC

I had the same reaction yesterday when I saw this. Checked with DC OTR and they confirmed that it is an official page. I agree that it looks super shady and they really need to do a better job of making clear to users what is going on.
Philippe Lecheval

Yep, it’s legit.
victoria

I actually called Ddot to ask that. Talked to a real person who said the survey was indeed real. I suggested that they put a link to the survey on the ddot.dc.gov website (I had gone there to look for it) since many people will not click on a link in an email. She said they would consider that.
Anon

The IRS and every state that assesses income taxes has a site like this.
Hill Denizen

I thought as long as it said https it was safe???
- Anonymous
  
  https just means it’s a secure connection. It doesn’t mean that the people running the site aren’t pretending to be someone else.
kgw

I also called them (of course, holding for over half hour) to ask about my missing refund. They said it should take 30-45 after they receive the requested documents back from the taxpayer. I confirmed that my refund would be direct deposited They said if that is what I checked, then, yes, it would be. However, my refund came about 42 days later in the mail. (It is also better to call at 5:00 pm to try to get a live person).
- FridayGirl
  
  DC put a big notice on their main tax website this year (and I think the forms, as well?) saying that anyone who has not received a refund from DC before will be getting paper checks, not direct deposit, no matter what was selected. It sounds like whoever you talked to didn’t think of that, but they did put up a notice about that.
  .
  (Unless you’re not a first-time DC taxpayer in which case I’m not sure why they did that….)
  - Cassie
    
    I thought that if it was an account that hadn’t been used for direct deposit last year, they would mail you the check.
  - kgw
    
    I’ve paid DC taxes for over 15 yrs. Always quick returns and direct deposit – prior to this year.
orla

Probably legitimate, but totally not safe. Just ask OPM.
textdoc

I use the taxpayerservicecenter.com URL a lot because I can never remember the URL it redirects to (otr.cfo.dc.gov ).
Beks

Just and FYI that site is not helpful at all. I checked it many times, and it never said anything more than my paperwork is being processed and that I should wait 7-10 days. I did my taxes early this year, and it took my about 6 weeks after I mailed in my proof of identity to receive a check in the mail with my refund. It was a total of 8-9 weeks of waiting for my refund to be processed.

Good luck with this!

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