EHIC Scam website www.ehic.org

NonGeographicalMan

Just thinking further on this has anyone here tried to make a formal complaint to Google about their current search result for EHIC via their Contact Us page at www.google.co.uk/intl/en-GB/contact/

As of today Google are still showing the scamming http://nhshice111-px.rtrk.co.uk/ who charge £17.99 to send out your EHIC card as the number one hit and the also scamming www.ehicplus.com website for a search on EHIC and the correct NHS website only comes up as the third hit!

Surely if enough people complained to Google they were not expecting to get a pay site when they search for EHIC and are expecting the official NHS website then Google will be forced to change they way their search results work?

someonesgottosayit

NonGeographicalMan wrote: »

The son of some friends of ours in Spain in the summer found his EHIC card had expired in the summer after he fell down some steps and injured himself and needed first aid treatment and possible hospital x-ray.

Are you saying, even though the son was injured, they first went online to get an EHIC card so as to get cheaper hospital costs. Doesn't that amount to an abuse of the system?

NonGeographicalMan wrote: »

The card had expired due to the totally unacceptable failure to remind people to renew them before they run out.

Do you know the costs involved in doing this sort of thing? If people need this much nannying surely they shouldn't be allowed abroad in the first place.

NonGeographicalMan wrote: »

Surely if enough people complained to Google they were not expecting to get a pay site when they search for EHIC and are expecting the official NHS website then Google will be forced to change they way their search results work?

Google are an advertising business, not a charity.

NonGeographicalMan

someonesgottosayit wrote: »

Are you saying, even though the son was injured, they first went online to get an EHIC card so as to get cheaper hospital costs. Doesn't that amount to an abuse of the system?

No. They sought treatment immediately the nexy day but were told without the EHIC card it was about £130 just to have a consultation and x-rays. The young person in question felt their anke was already starting to get better so they decided to go home and rest and it seemed clear by the evening it was only a sprain. However after this the parents wanted to investigate renewing the EHIC card in case there were any further incidents or problems.

The NHS have a system for renewing cards remotely to people abroad by fax to the foreign hospital in any kind of serious emergency situation. However this system only seems to usually operate where there is a very large amount of treatment needed and the person in question also does not have any backup private medical insurer.

Do you know the costs involved in doing this sort of thing? If people need this much nannying surely they shouldn't be allowed abroad in the first place.

When I applied for an EHIC card I supplied my email address and the application was confirmed by email. The only physical cost (beyond the initial big costs in designing the system which are fixed) was sending the card out in the post. To remind people about an EHIC card's expiry upcoming expiry so they can apply again online if they need one would only require an automated email database system diarised against the expiry date after five years (sent out perhaps two or three months before expiry). Automated emails should have a near nil cost to send out. Because the card had a five year validity loads of people I know who applied when the scheme first started have found their cards have expired but they have not known about.

Do you realise there appear to be some people who lead lives so utterly shallow and lacking in meaning that they have no greater enjoyment in their day than jumping on to a lofty metaphorical pillar and lecturing at other forum members even about a matter that has not affected them personally and on which they have no useful exprience or support to provide to the OP.

Google are an advertising business, not a charity.

Being a business shoul not allow you to behave immorally or to the detriment of society just because it is profitable as Starbucks for instance are finding out. Also our whole Health & Safety regime is based around preventing businesses behaving immorally.

I have no objection to Google earning money from advertising services that provide genuine added value. I have a problem with them taking money from businesses aimed purely at scamming people who wanted an EHIC card from the official provider and who actually do not even provide the service they have advertised (sending out an EHIC card) and seem to be purely criminal endeavours.

Anyway this all comes back to the central issue that you clearly enjoy pronouncing others as dunderheads so that you can declare yourself a forum genius.:eek::(

wealdroam

NonGeographicalMan wrote: »

Just thinking further on this has anyone here tried to make a formal complaint to Google about their current search result for EHIC via their Contact Us page at www.google.co.uk/intl/en-GB/contact/

As of today Google are still showing the scamming http://nhshice111-px.rtrk.co.uk/ who charge £17.99 to send out your EHIC card as the number one hit and the also scamming www.ehicplus.com website for a search on EHIC and the correct NHS website only comes up as the third hit!

Surely if enough people complained to Google they were not expecting to get a pay site when they search for EHIC and are expecting the official NHS website then Google will be forced to change they way their search results work?

When I use Google to search for EHIC, the first entry I see is http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/Healthcareabroad/EHIC/Pages/about-the-ehic.aspx

Maybe that is because I use Firefox with the Adblock Lite add-on.
This has the effect of suppressing most third party ads on most websites.

I would respectfully suggest you try that approach, as I cannot see people lobbying Google having much effect.

caged_sky

There are several errors in English at the europeanhealthcard.org.uk site,e.g:
'For those in little spare time ...'
and:
'Unlike the NHSBSA our website operates 27 hours a day'.
So any proofreading service included in their price would not be helpful.
I clicked on the link because it included the word 'renew', which is what I needed to do. I'm glad I saw the little sentence that included the link to the free service. Before I saw that, I'd decided not to bother with EHIC any more as they clearly said, ' A processing fee is now required per application' on the renewal form.

DCFC79

caged_sky wrote: »

There are several errors in English at the europeanhealthcard.org.uk site,e.g:
'For those in little spare time ...'
and:
'Unlike the NHSBSA our website operates 27 hours a day'.
So any proofreading service included in their price would not be helpful.
I clicked on the link because it included the word 'renew', which is what I needed to do. I'm glad I saw the little sentence that included the link to the free service. Before I saw that, I'd decided not to bother with EHIC any more as they clearly said, ' A processing fee is now required per application' on the renewal form.

if you type into google "nhs eihc " the first legit link is for the nhs website.

Archergirl

Just because you pay for a free service dosen't make it a scam. You asked for a service and you got it, you can do lots of things for free but people still pay others to do it for them, again silly but not a scam.

AlexMac

NonGeographicalMan wrote: »

Just thinking further on this has anyone here tried to make a formal complaint to Google about their current search result for EHIC via their Contact Us page at www.google.co.uk/intl/en-GB/contact/

...Surely if enough people complained to Google they were not expecting to get a pay site when they search for EHIC and are expecting the official NHS website then Google will be forced to change they way their search results work?

Like posters above, I'm surprised that some people seem to enjoy being rude to others (rather than making helpful posts) on this site; but, to address the issue in the quote above...

I suspect that complaints to google would be fruitless, because there's a whole industry around "SEO" (search engine optimisation) and I assume that Google themselves make money, directly or indirectly, out of people who pay to show first. If you look closely, you'll see that the first batch of listings are paid ads, so its not surprising that companies are keen to exploit the hurried or gullible.

And its not just the EHI card... I just rescued my niece who was about to pay £30 to an agency to fill in her Indian Visa application; whereas there's only one such agency officially recognised by their High Commission.

What's 'Geek' for caveat emptor'?

Archergirl

Another waste of money is the 'Check and Send' at the post office for passports.
Just read it through carefully yourself and if you want to, get someone else to read out the questions and check your answers.

DCFC79

AlexMac wrote: »

And its not just the EHI card... I just rescued my niece who was about to pay £30 to an agency to fill in her Indian Visa application; whereas there's only one such agency officially recognised by their High Commission.

Two others I can think of are the land registry 1 (cant remember what it promises to do) and I think theres the driving licence application site.