EHIC Scam website www.ehic.org

Pollycat

I don't see it as a scam if the company say - not hidden away in the small print - you can get the card free from official sources but they charge a fee.

I see that as sharp practice.

According to Directgov:

Scams are schemes that try to trick you out of your money. Common scams include:

• foreign lottery wins – these ask you to pay a fee to claim your ‘prize’ when you haven’t really won anything
• get-rich-quick investments – invite you to invest money for a ‘guaranteed’ profit, when there is no investment so you lose your money
• miracle health cures – invite you to buy a health product like arthritis cream from a website that has not been tested and is unproven

A scam is usually uninvited (unsolicited). This means it will come from a company or person you’ve never heard of by:

• post – through a letter or promotional leaflet
• email – through a personal or promotional message ('spam emails')
• phone ('cold calling')
• text message

A scam will:

• give extravagant promises – if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is
• ask you to pay for something upfront, eg you have to pay a fee to claim a prize
• put pressure on you to make a quick decision, eg an investment opportunity will end unless you pay straight away
• ask for bank account details so they can steal your money

Almost all the websites I've looked at do say that they charge a fee but the card can be obtained free from the offical website.

I think it's important to read the small print of anything that you are committing to buying, regardless of how tired you are or how tedious it might seem.

I doubt very much if you will get a refund.

NonGeographicalMan

Pollycat wrote: »

I think it's important to read the small print of anything that you are committing to buying, regardless of how tired you are or how tedious it might seem.

I think it would be much easier if it was simply made illegal for other people to get hold of EHIC cards on other people's behalf and charge a fee for it.

There is no added value in what these outfits do at all. They simply to try to charge a fee for issuing the card by presenting themselves to the person wanting one as though they are the DWP website and paying Google to come before the DWP in the list of hits for a search on EHIC. Google should be ashamed of themselves for actively aiding and abetting such deliberate scamming.

Regardless of what you claim about it being important for most people to read pages and pages of terms and conditions most people don't and most companies with long terms and conditions have them precisely in order to be able to scam their customers.

Pollycat given the length of your membership of the forum it seems fairly unlikely that you are simply a friend or relative of one of the scammers although given the level of your support for their activities I would not altogether rule it out. However as you have nothing useful at all to say for the benefit of other forum members on this subject I think it would have been much better if you had said nothing at all.

Pollycat

NonGeographicalMan wrote: »

I think it would be much easier if it was simply made illegal for other people to get hold of EHIC cards on other people's behalf and charge a fee for it.

There is no added value in what these outfits do at all. They simply to try to charge a fee for issuing the card by presenting themselves to the person wanting one as though they are the DWP website and paying Google to come before the DWP in the list of hits for a search on EHIC. Google should be ashamed of themselves for actively aiding and abetting such deliberate scamming.

I agree
But until setting up these websites can be stopped, it's the responsibility of individuals to be careful about what they agree to.

NonGeographicalMan wrote: »

Regardless of what you claim about it being important for most people to read pages and pages of terms and conditions most people don't and most companies with long terms and conditions have them precisely in order to be able to scam their customers.

It's not what I 'claim' - it's common sense to read T&Cs.

I did read them - and realised that I could get the card free.

And most of the websites I've seen, didn't have 'long terms and conditions', the statement that the EHIC from them was at a cost but that it could be obtained free from the official website was pretty clear on the first page of the website.

Have you never heard of personal accountability?

NonGeographicalMan wrote: »

Pollycat given the length of your membership of the forum it seems fairly unlikely that you are simply a friend or relative of one of the scammers although given the level of your support for their activities I would not altogether rule it out. However as you have nothing useful at all to say for the benefit of other forum members on this subject I think it would have been much better if you had said nothing at all.

Do not cast aspersions on my ethics.

I am not a friend or relative of one of the 'scammers'.

It's not support for their activities - it's saying that people should read the information on the website.

If they point out that you can get the card free and you didn't read that sentence - whose fault is it?

It's your opinion that I have nothing to nothing useful at all to say for the benefit of other forum members on this subject.
Advising people to read what is stated on a website and to read the T&Cs is good advice.

As this is a public forum, I'll post on whatever thread pleases me.

Just because I've not agreed 100% with your viewpoint doesn't make me wrong.

scottishperson2

Pollycat wrote: »

I think it's important to read the small print of anything that you are committing to buying

You don't even have to read the small print, as the notice tends to be on the front page.

Examples

From NHSBSA - The NHSBSA site (www.ehic.org.uk) is usually available every day for 16 hours but cannot be used between 23.00 hrs and 07.00 hrs. If you prefer to log in during the hours that this site is open and are prepared to check the information yourself, these applications can be made without cost.

The application verification services provided by this web site incur a small administrative charge – you can apply for a card directly from the NHSBA without charge. Standard applications are normally processed within 3 working days.

If people can't be bothered to read stuff on the front page, they're not going to read the T&Cs

s_b

of course its a scam playing on the fact people reckon they are on the nhs site
i posted about this a few weeks back ,i got the wife who worked for the nhs and it fooled her till it asked for payment
only then did she realise it was an unofficial site
its alright saying people should read the full moneysaver forum but i know at least two couples who have paid for their cards in the belief you needed to pay

some of you people want to get real and see things from an ordinary man perspective and get your teachers glasses on a string off the ends of your disapproving noses

Pollycat

s_b wrote: »

of course its a scam playing on the fact people reckon they are on the nhs site
i posted about this a few weeks back ,i got the wife who worked for the nhs and it fooled her till it asked for payment
only then did she realise it was an unofficial site
its alright saying people should read the full moneysaver forum but i know at least two couples who have paid for their cards in the belief you needed to pay

some of you people want to get real and see things from an ordinary man perspective and get your teachers glasses on a string off the ends of your disapproving noses

I didn't say people should read the full moneysaver forum - I said they should read the information on the website they are looking at.

And, as scottishperson says, it says (not even in the small print) that you can get the card for free from the official website.

I don't need to 'get real', I do see things from an ordinary perspective (that is the perspective of someone who makes sure what I'm signing up to before clicking on 'OK') - and I'm neither a teacher nor do I wear glasses.

I'm not disaproving, I've expressed sympathy with some of the users who've paid money for a EHIC when they didn't need to (those that didn't get on their high horses, that is).

Assuming it says clearly that you can get the card free from the NHS I just don't see it as a scam, I see it as sharp practice - that's my opinion and I think I'm entitled to express it.

NonGeographicalMan

Pollycat wrote: »

I don't need to 'get real', I do see things from an ordinary perspective (that is the perspective of someone who makes sure what I'm signing up to before clicking on 'OK') - and I'm neither a teacher nor do I wear glasses.

If that was actually true then you would know that normal people do not actually have the time to read pages of terms and conditions in the same way that normal people do not have the free time in their lives available to make nearly 5,000 posts in the Moneysavingexpert.com forum over five years. The fact that you have such free time available in your life is clearly also an explanation as to why you seem to also have the free time available to while away yet more of those unfilled hours in your life reading and long indigestible legalese.

I'm not disaproving, I've expressed sympathy with some of the users who've paid money for a EHIC when they didn't need to (those that didn't get on their high horses, that is).

You very clearly have far too much free time on your hands as your endless self contradictory posts in this thread demonstrate. Small wonder then that you seem find it so difficult to imagine why most normal people do not read terms and conditions deliberately written by organisations in such a fashion as to discourage most of their normal, ordinary customers from reading them.

scottishperson2

NonGeographicalMan wrote: »

why most normal people do not read terms and conditions deliberately written by organisations in such a fashion as to discourage most of their normal, ordinary customers from reading them.

These "disclaimers" are on the front screen.

If you look at how the OFT dealt with some of these companies you would find out this is so.

morzov

Apologies if any this has been posted before. My wife got caught out by https://www.eu-healthcare.com £14.99 for a card that never turned up. Action Fraud confirmed to me that the transaction was a fraud.

A footer on the web page says it is run by EHIC Ltd but a check at Companies House shows 2 companies with this name both of which are dissolved. The address for correspondence on the website is in Luxembourg

Whoever runs this site now has her personal details such as DOB, NI insurance number, credit card number.

To add insult to injury the site lists that it is registered with the Data Protection Agency. So I checked the Reg No which showed EHIC Ltd and then rang the DPA and pointed out that they had registered a non existent company which ran a website that was trading fraudulently. I asked what they were going to do about it and they said they were going to do nothing!

The OFT were more helpful, and suggested that I email in the details and also report it to Action Fraud and they confirmed that the website was a complete scam.

Basically seems all the govt agencies know about this but have taken bu**er all action!

scottishperson2

morzov wrote: »

My wife got caught out by www.eu-healthcare.com

Are you certain that is the website? If you check it you may find you have typed care instead of card.

morzov wrote: »

To add insult to injury the site lists that it is registered with the Data Protection Agency. So I checked the Reg No which showed EHIC Ltd and then rang the DPA and pointed out that they had registered a non existent company which ran a website that was trading fraudulently

After that do another check with data protection.

http://www.ico.gov.uk/ESDWebPages/search.asp
use Registration Number Z3026639

The company is also based in belgium.

Registration Number: Z3026639
Date Registered: 27 January 2012 Registration Expires: 26 January 2013

Data Controller: EHIC LIMITED

Address:

BPM NR. 25126
3 RUE DES DEUX LUXEMBOURG
B-6791 ATHUS
BELGIUM

Other Names:
EHIC

Then check the number of times it says on their website that they are not affiliated, tells you where to get it for free, etc etc etc

morzov wrote: »

Action Fraud and they confirmed that the website was a complete scam.

If you have actually entered "care" correctly, then I cannot even get any website up on that address so of course they will call it a scam.

However, At the moment your post doesn't make sense, as no website exists at the address you have given, the company you have named, EHIC LIMITED, is on the data protection register, and you are using a dissolved UK company to do a search at companies house when the company is actually based in belgium.