Driving Licence Replacement Scam!

Sue_Ryall

Has anyone tried to take these jokers to a small claims court? I'd be interested to know outcome?

fivetide

Sue_Ryall wrote: »

Has anyone tried to take these jokers to a small claims court? I'd be interested to know outcome?

The few that seem to have had a refund got one at the letter before action stage. I suspect it is because they don't weant to go to court and have a judge say that the site is deliberately misleading.

As I said on another thread if the DVLA were a corporate entity like Apple there would be now way they would stand for it (Apple recently sued a cafe in Germany simply for having an apple as its logo). the DVLA doesn't do this and the companies point to their disclaimers as evidence that they are not trying to impersonate the DVLA (despite using all the same colours etc)

It is clearly a nice money maker so it is presumably cheaper to refund the serious complainants than it is to risk the house of cards coming down if a judge agrees there is a chance of confusion.

BeenThroughItAll

Sue_Ryall wrote: »

Its ok to criticise people but there are loads of reports about even the most savvy IT people falling foul to this one due to time pressures.

---SNIP---

5) State in email that you have DrivingLicence.uk.com Director address (James Wyatt) 12 Foyle Place, Sunderland SR1 1LB and you will be sending his details to relevant people/agencies who will be handling matter. His phone number is 0191 580 0186. Suggest you inundate him with calls expressing your displeasure about the service you have received.

---SNIP---

7) Speak to your MP and try and get them to do something via a select committee. They've just had energy producers in for price hikes so why cant they do something about these guys.

8) Give them a negative review on Google by clicking on the green tick by side of website. This will take you to a page where you can leave a review (bottom of screen). Suggest everyone does this in an attempt to expose them and get google to do something.

I hope these 'IT people' (whatever that means) aren't looking after anything important, like a nuclear power station. If they're that dense they can't read the clear information on a website God help us if there was a meltdown.

With regard to point 5, I doubt very much that James Wyatt will be personally receiving the letters and calls, so that's hardly going to make a difference.

Point 7 - your MP is hardly going to be able to justify tens of thousands of pounds of the public purse's contents to hold a Select Committee grilling of these people who are running a legal business. Energy companies are big and headline making - a few idiots who can't be bothered to make the ten seconds of time it takes to read the information on a website is not grounds for government intervention.

Point 8 - I'm sure Google aren't going to give a stuff how many negative reviews anyone has, as long as they keep paying for the advertisements.

Sue_Ryall

Dear Mr Beenthroughitall -whatever that means....

You have clearly not investigated this site fully nor do you know the proper legal position. Have you tried phoning the 0191 number....no because if you had you would get straight through to James Wyatt.

Do everyone a favour and let people who've been through this situation try and sort it out instead of distracting people from a potential remedy.

You are uninformed and unhelpful.

fivetide

Beenthroughitall, perhaps you should be reading the manual on here rather than insulting people who are actually trying to help others. I can't see you doing that at all in this thread.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/site/forum-faqs
Please be nice to all MoneySavers. That’s the forum motto. Remember, the prime aim is to help provide info and resources. If you don’t like someone, their situation, their question or feel they’re intruding on ‘your board’ then please bite the bullet and think of the bigger issue. A Guardian article once "doffed its cap" to this forum as being the one place where consumers can collect together and fight back. Our job is to help keep it that way.

Ikeeptrying

This morning I probably would have agreed with a number of the posters on this thread who talked about people not paying attention not reading what's in front of them etc. etc. However, a few hours later and one application to renew my driving licence later I now find myself on the other side of the fence. Scoff all you like but I AM a computer savvy individual, I have never been scammed before, I check everything…….. except this.

I clicked through from Google to driving licence application (I must confess I didn't even realise it was an advert) I then proceeded to apply for my licence online and it was only at the end when a screen popped up saying thank you, we are not affiliated to DVLA that I realised my mistake. Gutted is not strong enough a word. Fortunately for me it only cost me £5, but this site looks exactly like DVLA it even has the crown, in fact it looks more legitimate than the DVLA site, I didn't even notice/question the web address. Looking at it now I can see the statements about not being DVLA etc etc. But if you were to give me a truth serum I would insist that they had not been there when I clicked through……. So Buyer Beware, I genuinely believed I was in the DVLA website and believe me I'm not an idiot, but I was in a rush. Plus to be honest I do expect to be able to apply online for my driving licence address change. I am surprised they don't do it.

That is all very well, I've sent my data to Hong Kong and I've lost £5 and I've had to cancel my bank card, lesson learned. But this site takes it one step further. The same minute that I received my receipt email from Net Secure.co.uk I also received another email from them entitled Free subscription, this detailed my user name and passcode for an automotive e-magazine. But by this time I had come to my senses and rather than just deleting it outright I checked the (very) tiny small print and learned that the free was for 48 hours at which point I would be charged £24 subscription every 2 months unless I cancelled. Needless to say I did and they emailed to confirm I would no longer be charged (will I be charged the first £24 I wonder?).

Now, I have read through every single word of their terms and conditions, their privacy policy, their faq's and nowhere is there ANY mention of a subscription, only the one off checking fee. There is no mention of e-magazines (or Net Secure for that matter). Nowhere was I asked for permission for a recurring payment. Surely this is illegal? Companies can't just subscribe you to something you didn't ask for and take further payments from your card without your permission. I understood that companies are not even supposed to keep your payment data unless you have given permission for a recurring payment. There is nothing in their terms and conditions or small print covering this point. It's only referred to in the email I received after the event. This is different to those vitamin pill/book type clubs where there is small print that states that you will be charged after the free trial period. What do you think the law is on this? I'm pretty gobsmacked by the front of these people.

I also can't believe I'm in the position of writing this. You may think it can't happen to you, but I've learned the bitter truth today.:(

poppasmurf_bewdley

Ikeeptrying - you say they are abroad in Hong Kong, so it doesn't matter whether it is illegal or not in this country.

Have you tried asking your bank to do a chargeback on the grounds it was a fraudulent site?

Alisdair_C

My wife was conned by a similar website : dvla-driving-licence.co.uk, while renewing her driving licence.
So I have only just discovered this scam. And it's slightly disappointing coming on here and seeing people slag others off. It's not really in the spirit of the site, so can people please just consider that if you're comments aren't helpful, just keep your thoughts to yourself? And hope that as you are perfect, you never once get conned and need help.

Anyway, luckily my wife saw the cost a few days after, and the terms and conditions on the website state that you can request a refund within 7 days of the application (minus the £8 admin fee).

dvla-driving-licence.co.uk/terms.php

There is no phone number (that I found) for this company, but the office is in a lovely idyllic village in Hampshire if anyone fancies driving to take it up with them directly...

Smokestack71

Hi everyone, I'm a newbie and I felt compelled to post about this....
ok so today I was scammed by this website made up to look exactly like the DVLA website.... £60 to send a printed form out so I could then pay £20 for a renewed license. My own fault, didn't read the small print, but, I despise these thieving robbing bxxxxxxxs, so here's how the emails in response to the scam went....

[ME] Enquiry:
It's the week before christmas. My son is now minus Lego Star Wars Jabbas palace thanks to this website. It's obviously phishing because you've designed it exactly like the DVLA website. £60 for a renewal form filled in? I would like a refund and cancel this please.

[THEM]:
We are a 3rd party acting agent for which as explained on the website we charge a processing fee , because this application has already been processed we cannot cancel this order , but we are prepared to refund our service fee less £8 administration costs , Please be so kind to reply to this email with sort code & account number and order ID , if you prefer to be refunded Via Pay Pal or Cheque please advise Paypal or address details.
Best Regards
Peter

[ME]

Dear Peter

I imagine this would be a good service for someone severely disabled or very ill should they not be able to fill in the simple forms online.
So you are refunding £52 to my account? Paypal would be fine at XXXXXXXXXXX asap, so I can buy my son his present.
Well done for being the first website to ever extort money out of me have a good Christmas.

(NO RESPONSE or REFUND)

Hi Peter,
Are you on lunch?
Did you get an ETA on the arrival of my refund, I’m concerned now as I fear Solo will never be free from the Carbonite without this money.

(STILL NOWT)

Dear Peter,
Any news?

(SILENCE)

Dear Peter,

Have you refunded the money yet. If so I’d be very grateful.

(.....)

Hi Peter,

I’m concerned you have not replied to my friendly emails. I cannot afford to lose £52 as I am not a wealthy man. I don’t even own a car. I only renewed my driving license because I had too. I’ve paid on the legit site also, that was only £20 and took less than 5 minutes, I imagine this would be difficult for the elderly, especially if it was cold through not being able to afford their energy bills, or perhaps limbless folk. Actually, I don't know if limbless folk would be allowed to drive? hmmm what do you think Peter?

(....)

Peter?......Peter.....? are you there Peter?....

(....)

Peter, it's been a while, I'm genuinely concerned for your safety. If you are in trouble or being held captive simply send me a message saying something like "I'm going to be late, can you take Noodles out for a walk". That way your captivators will not suspect you've notified me of your kidnap and I can inform the Police

[Them] - Sorry, we are unable to process your application on-line.
Please supply sort code & account number and we will refund all fees already submitted.
You will need to pick up a form from the Post Office and manually fill in the details. Peter is fine, please do not email again.

[Me with refund] - How do I know you aren't his captivators?

And THAT is how to get a FULL refund from a scam website :-)

Joe_Malone

Can you all please the other threads on MSE relating to driving license UK Ltd where I have outlined the process for getting your money back. Everyone that has followed this process has gotten a full refund.