Steps to take if you have been ripped-off by a copy-cat government website

Libbybeth

As the mother of a 16 year old who was devastated to discover that her application for a provisional licence was made through a scam website it makes me quite cross to see people like PEACHYPRICE pontificating and splitting hairs about how these websites are not out to scam. For your information PEACHYPRICE the website did not tell her at checkout either as a basket with what she was paying for in it nor did it state it was taking £90 as she would have realised immediately that this was not correct and would not have completed the transaction. If they are failing to do this then they are deliberately misleading people as any honest site would show you at checkout what amount they are about to deduct. They are set up deliberately using colours that are the same as government websites and also are using DVLA in their website name for search engines. My daughters whole experience of applying on her own for her first provisional licence and paying for it out of her hard earned part time salary have been destroyed. By defending them you are no better than they are....PEACHPRICE I hope you don't fall off that high pedestal you have placed yourself on....

hpuse

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

imoneyop stated that google were displaying posts from legitimate companies and they did not state anything about Google legitimising anything. You are only one to mention Google legitimising something.

Ah I see where you are coming from...
What he meant to say is ... who4 Ltd, which is a registered and legitimate entity that owns website trading and purchasing CPC ads ....
Ok, I got it.

imoneyop

Libbybeth wrote: »

As the mother of a 16 year old who was devastated to discover that her application for a provisional licence was made through a scam website it makes me quite cross to see people like PEACHYPRICE pontificating and splitting hairs about how these websites are not out to scam. For your information PEACHYPRICE the website did not tell her at checkout either as a basket with what she was paying for in it nor did it state it was taking £90 as she would have realised immediately that this was not correct and would not have completed the transaction. If they are failing to do this then they are deliberately misleading people as any honest site would show you at checkout what amount they are about to deduct. They are set up deliberately using colours that are the same as government websites and also are using DVLA in their website name for search engines. My daughters whole experience of applying on her own for her first provisional licence and paying for it out of her hard earned part time salary have been destroyed. By defending them you are no better than they are....PEACHPRICE I hope you don't fall off that high pedestal you have placed yourself on....

No one is defending them - we are pointing out to the ill-informed that as the law currently stands these websites are legal - if you don't like that perhaps you should contact your MP and ask him to raise it in Parliament.

People should read what they are signing up to - perhaps as a parent you should be instilling that in your daughter - it will save her from being "scammed" by other companies in future.

Did your daughter get her driving license after paying her £90?

imoneyop

hpuse wrote: »

Ah I see where you are coming from...
What he meant to say is ... who4 Ltd, which is a registered and legitimate entity that owns website trading and purchasing CPC ads ....
Ok, I got it.

Do you just pick random words and type them in the hope that when they are all put together they make sense? I'd try a different tactic if I was you as it isn't working, 99% of what you write is nonsense.

meer53

Libbybeth wrote: »

As the mother of a 16 year old who was devastated to discover that her application for a provisional licence was made through a scam website it makes me quite cross to see people like PEACHYPRICE pontificating and splitting hairs about how these websites are not out to scam. For your information PEACHYPRICE the website did not tell her at checkout either as a basket with what she was paying for in it nor did it state it was taking £90 as she would have realised immediately that this was not correct and would not have completed the transaction. If they are failing to do this then they are deliberately misleading people as any honest site would show you at checkout what amount they are about to deduct. They are set up deliberately using colours that are the same as government websites and also are using DVLA in their website name for search engines. My daughters whole experience of applying on her own for her first provisional licence and paying for it out of her hard earned part time salary have been destroyed. By defending them you are no better than they are....PEACHPRICE I hope you don't fall off that high pedestal you have placed yourself on....

Which website did your daughter use ?

shaun_from_Africa

hpuse wrote: »

Not illegal (especially if it is not written somewhere ) means Legal

Of course "not illegal" means that it is legal. How can you possibly think that this is not the case when you have previously stated that these companies are legal?

hpuse wrote: »

To all, Once again I say, I don't post unsubstantiated facts. May be not all are verifiable in public domain. However, I know for a fact that these companies are legal.

hpuse

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

Of course "not illegal" means that it is legal. How can you possibly think that this is not the case when you have previously stated that these companies are legal?

Great!
There is also another post of mine which details the difference between existing legally as an entity and trading legally. They both are not entirely same.

meer53

hpuse wrote: »

Great!
There is also another post of mine which details the difference between existing legally as an entity and trading legally. They both are not entirely same.

Great ? Really ?

What are you on about ?

shaun_from_Africa

hpuse wrote: »

Great!
There is also another post of mine which details the difference between existing legally as an entity and trading legally. They both are not entirely same.

In case you forgot, in that same post, part of which I quoted, you also stated that the companies in question were trading legally.

hpuse wrote: »

To all, Once again I say, I don't post unsubstantiated facts. May be not all are verifiable in public domain. However, I know for a fact that these companies are legal.
But they are also at the 'verge' of breaking the rules, laws and regulations.

"At the verge of breaking the law" (in your opinion), but not actually breaking the law yet, hence you consider that they must be trading legally.

Libbybeth

Imoneyop - you clearly have no idea about these scam sites do you? Of course she didnt get her licence, she had to pay another £50 this time to the correct people - I took her to the post office!

With regard to your advice about my parenting, my daughter (who gained her GCSE in ICT) checked that the site had the safety padlock as she has been taught by me to do. She has learnt her lesson the hard way as she did not recognise that "providing a service" meant they were not the correct site and would be charging her £90 for the privilege of sending her a form. She wanted to surprise us that she had applied and paid all by herself and only realised her mistake when she checked her bank balance a few days later and told me they had taken the wrong amount. A once in a lifetime experience ruined. Oh and just in case you wondered neither at check out or in email they sent to confim her transaction did they state she had paid £90, I wonder why...

I have forwarded your details to mumsnet as you are obviously an expert in advising
parents....

Martin Lewis set up this site to help people, many people post comments on here for the sake of it rather than than to be helpful...
My daughter feels very stupid and upset, she is not alone hundreds of people have also been caught out including adults renewing their licences, more publicity is need to draw attention to it.