Scam - Vehicle Information

Pollycat

forgotmyname said:

Pollycat said:

And anyone who says "I guess those jumping to the defence of it have some interest in it."
😂😂😂😂
If I had £1 for every company I've been accused of 'having interest in', I'd be able to buy MSE - 10 times over.

Are you admitting to having an interest in MSE then?  

I want to meet one of these scammers.   They can guess a persons name, email, vehicle reg and bank details..

I want one of them to pick next weeks lottery numbers.  Should be a hit 100% risk free.

You may notice that 'having an interest in' was put inside punctuation as it was a direct quote from someone who said that 'people jumping to defend these companies must have an interest in them'.

So your comment about MSE doesn't make any sense in the context of my post.

I'm not sure you're actually correct about 'these scammers' either.
In this instance, people are putting their details into a website that they think is the official DVLA but isn't.
These scammers are not guessing anything so your hope of getting winning lottery numbers is a non starter 

KikiWell17

This is a very long thread. Just wanted to add that I was recently a victim of this scam or whatever it is. I got my tax reminder letter with the code from the DVLA and went online to pay my tax. I cannot recall if I typed the address on the letter in letter for letter or if I typed "dvla tax" or something vague like that into the search bar and then clicked on the first link. But whatever I did, I seem to have subscribed to the vehicle information service instead of taxing my car. This has led not only to a fine of £40 for not having taxed my car but also to a £35 fine from the police as a speed trap van picked up my car as untaxed. I fully thought I had taxed my car in time as I went online to do so before my tax expired. I even wrote on my tax reminder letter "taxed on 31.08.24 :-) " before I filed it away as a note to myself that I had actioned that admin task. I do have problems with some inattentiveness but I an absolutely sure I had taxed my car. However I never received payment confirmation from the DVLA website, so I know I didn't!

I think this vehicle info website did 1 of the 2 following options:

1. It impersonated the DVLA's website, presenting a front that looked like I was taxing my car when actually it was just subscribing me to their own service. This would have required total misleading of me as a consumer. I do think this is probably what happened though as it is totally out of character for me to subscribe to a service such as vehicle information and I'm really careful about taking on free trials or subscriptions.

2. The vehicle information site distracted me so much and sent me down a rabbit hole (I can't remember unfort, it was 2 months ago!!) that I lost track and thought I had taxed my car when I hadn't.

I do distinctly remember waiting for a payment confirmation of £20 (yes my tax is that low!) to pop up but it never did and thinking it was weird. I should at that point have checked. But that proves to me that I had been led to believe I was in the right place to tax my car. 

This is all very perplexing and I feel like this site has gaslighted me. I tried to retrace my internet history to the day I went to the site and it looks different now than when I was on it (unknowingly!! Thinking i was on the DVLA's website to tax my car!) at the end of August.

I cancelled my subscription when I noticed the weekly payment of £7.95 coming out after 2 weeks of it, and they did refund me when I explained I didn't recall ever having signed up for the service. Although they only redunded me for 1 week not 2. At this stage however I'm too tired to chase them further. And it's peanuts compared to the £75 total I have accrued now in fines for an untaxed vehicle. I wish I would have twigged that something wasn't right when I came across those payments, and double checked whether or not my car was showing up as taxed.

I am a 34 year old, post-grad educated female who uses the Internet loads so this isn't a case of a vulnerable, non-interner savvy person. Although it seems I do still have a lot to learn to protect myself from stuff like this going forwards.

robatwork

KikiWell17 said:

2. The vehicle information site distracted me so much and sent me down a rabbit hole (I can't remember unfort, it was 2 months ago!!) that I lost track and thought I had taxed my car when I hadn't.

This isn't a criticism but a genuine question to someone raised with the internet and text speak. Is unfort your personal abbreviation or commonplace? Not heard it before. 

Pollycat

KikiWell17 said:

This is a very long thread. Just wanted to add that I was recently a victim of this scam or whatever it is. I got my tax reminder letter with the code from the DVLA and went online to pay my tax. I cannot recall if I typed the address on the letter in letter for letter or if I typed "dvla tax" or something vague like that into the search bar and then clicked on the first link. But whatever I did, I seem to have subscribed to the vehicle information service instead of taxing my car. This has led not only to a fine of £40 for not having taxed my car but also to a £35 fine from the police as a speed trap van picked up my car as untaxed. I fully thought I had taxed my car in time as I went online to do so before my tax expired. I even wrote on my tax reminder letter "taxed on 31.08.24 :-) " before I filed it away as a note to myself that I had actioned that admin task. I do have problems with some inattentiveness but I an absolutely sure I had taxed my car. However I never received payment confirmation from the DVLA website, so I know I didn't!

I think this vehicle info website did 1 of the 2 following options:

1. It impersonated the DVLA's website, presenting a front that looked like I was taxing my car when actually it was just subscribing me to their own service. This would have required total misleading of me as a consumer. I do think this is probably what happened though as it is totally out of character for me to subscribe to a service such as vehicle information and I'm really careful about taking on free trials or subscriptions.

2. The vehicle information site distracted me so much and sent me down a rabbit hole (I can't remember unfort, it was 2 months ago!!) that I lost track and thought I had taxed my car when I hadn't.

I do distinctly remember waiting for a payment confirmation of £20 (yes my tax is that low!) to pop up but it never did and thinking it was weird. I should at that point have checked. But that proves to me that I had been led to believe I was in the right place to tax my car. 

This is all very perplexing and I feel like this site has gaslighted me. I tried to retrace my internet history to the day I went to the site and it looks different now than when I was on it (unknowingly!! Thinking i was on the DVLA's website to tax my car!) at the end of August.

I cancelled my subscription when I noticed the weekly payment of £7.95 coming out after 2 weeks of it, and they did refund me when I explained I didn't recall ever having signed up for the service. Although they only redunded me for 1 week not 2. At this stage however I'm too tired to chase them further. And it's peanuts compared to the £75 total I have accrued now in fines for an untaxed vehicle. I wish I would have twigged that something wasn't right when I came across those payments, and double checked whether or not my car was showing up as taxed.

I am a 34 year old, post-grad educated female who uses the Internet loads so this isn't a case of a vulnerable, non-interner savvy person. Although it seems I do still have a lot to learn to protect myself from stuff like this going forwards.

Re the bit in bold - FWIW, I think you did the latter.
If you had typed the address on the letter in letter for letter, you would have been on the correct website.