Scam - Vehicle Information

Pollycat

Admiral_Barbarossa said:

As soon as someone wants my card details, I adopt the following.

Deep Pockets, Short Arms

Some people are too quick to click?

Yes, they are.

Doing things in a hurry.
Not paying attention to what they are doing.
Not reading things fully.
Doing several things at once.

It's your money you're spending so make sure you are giving it to the right company.

In the link to the website on the first page of this thread, it says:

OUR MONTHLY VEHICLE STATUS CHECK SERVICE

Start your 24 hour trial for 50p today. Full membership is just £5.95/month

Unless this is a new change to the website (this thread was started 2 years ago), how can anyone miss the fact that you will be charged £5.95 per month?

ETA:

There was another thread about this company (see reference on page 1) here:

Scam - Vehicle Information — MoneySavingExpert Forum

and on 1/5/2020 someone posted:

cymruchris said:

I don't see any scam - I see a service that gives you a signup for 50p, then £5.95 a month. On the front page it states:
*£0.50 for 24 hour trial. Full membership price of £5.95 per month is charged automatically after this period. Cancel membership at any time.
It says cancel membership at any time - so have you done that via your account on their website? Why are you trying to contact your bank? It should just be a simple click button somewhere on your account that will end the membership?

so how are people missing the fact that this company is not affiliated to DVLA (assuming they are paying attention to what they are doing)?

[Deleted User]

I joined MSE specifically to say that I was somehow caught out by this company. And I am not usually easily fooled! It's a scam morally if not legally! Otherwise they wouldn't charge you monthly for a service you are obviously not using! Even Amazon Prime refund you when you point out that you signed up by accident and haven't actually used the service. 

My bank (Halifax) are totally unsympathetic although they knew who I was talking about immediately! They just told me to cancel my "account" with the company.  Wouldn't assist me with blocking them taking future payments.  Basically blamed me.  (Yeah, ok, I should read the small print but not great customer services). 

I'd love to hear how folk get on with their small claims.

[Deleted User]

Hi Pollycat, 

Nice bit of victim-blaming going on there! Does it matter if I am an old lady with sight problems?

I didn't expect to be signing up for membership to something when I was looking for a single piece of information.  I think the fact that so many other people have fallen for it speaks volumes.

I am the bank's customer.  Not their errant child.  Of course they should provide me with a bit of customer service and block these cowboys from taking more money! Rather than tell me that "it's all my fault". 

Yes, someone upthread said they were taking it to the small claims court.   

[Deleted User]

Thanks Pollycat, I have really enjoyed your welcome to MSE.  
I now appreciate it was all my fault.  I see the error of my ways.  
Thanks to you and thanks to Halifax for putting me straight. 

Ath_Wat

KirstenNeilson said:

Hi Pollycat, 

Nice bit of victim-blaming going on there! Does it matter if I am an old lady with sight problems?

I didn't expect to be signing up for membership to something when I was looking for a single piece of information.  I think the fact that so many other people have fallen for it speaks volumes.

I am the bank's customer.  Not their errant child.  Of course they should provide me with a bit of customer service and block these cowboys from taking more money! Rather than tell me that "it's all my fault". 

Yes, someone upthread said they were taking it to the small claims court.   

Actually, if you were the bank's child you would expect them to look after you by stopping you making bad decisions for yourself.  But you are not, you are a customer.  The only relationship you have with them is a business one, they provide a service, you pay them. If you want a different service, look for someone else who might provide it,  If you are willing to pay enough, somebody probably will.

PhilOz78

I’ve just quickly tried a couple of things. Searching Google for “tax your vehicle” only came up with official results, however searching for “gov.uk/vehicle-tax” does bring up two adverts for companies like those everybody is referring to. 

There are a number of points to make about this:
1. Too many people either don’t know how or have got into the habit of not visiting a website directly without always going through Google first. If you already have the website address, there’s no need to use Google at all, just type it directly into your web browser’s address bar and go straight to the website. 

2. I wouldn’t call it a scam, but it is a bit spammy for these companies to clearly be targeting that particular search term in the Google results. However, each listing clearly said “Sponsored” above it and showed the actual (non-gov) website address you would be visiting if you clicked on them. 

3. Once you are through to the website, there is an attempt to mimic some of the colours and to some extent the style of a government website. However, there is no government or DVLA logo anywhere on the page, only the company logo and they clearly state either “Providing vehicle information with no affiliation to the government” or “Vehicle Information is provided by a 3rd party licensed data company and is not affiliated with the government.”

 It is unfortunate that some people are finding themselves signed up to something they didn’t mean to but it seems that all the signs are there and so the real lesson from this is not to rush into handing over your card details online. 

If you’re short of time, leave it until you have the time to concentrate on what you’re doing. If you don’t know how to directly access a secure website, even when you’ve got the address, without always going through Google first, then take 5 minutes to learn and practise. Find out how to bookmark websites so that you can easily return to the proper website again the next time you need it. Taking the time to learn some simple online skills will give you much greater protection in the future. 

FOF

My nearly 90 year old mother fell for this and has been paying without realising it for over a year. She logged into her account but it is impossible to close it. Click on close account and you get an offer to keep being subscribed for "only £1 per month!" If you click on cancel again you simply get a message which says the below, but there is no way to cancel any of the "memberships". You end up going round in endless circles despite the banner saying "Cancel anytime". The only way I think she will be able to get rid of this stuff is by going into her bank and getting them to cancel for her. Unless anyone has a tip for how to do it. 

Delete Account

You have active memberships, these must cancelled before account deletion can happen.

oltemple

Some people are very critical of others for not being careful enough (and of course many of us aren't) but I have to say the company concerned is certainly very careful - careful to stay on the right side of the law, and careful to make it very easy for you to think that you are renewing your tax. Certainly I found it easy to get to the point of putting credit card details into the site before thinking again.

This is the page Google took me to:

Pollycat

oltemple said:

Some people are very critical of others for not being careful enough (and of course many of us aren't) but I have to say the company concerned is certainly very careful - careful to stay on the right side of the law, and careful to make it very easy for you to think that you are renewing your tax. Certainly I found it easy to get to the point of putting credit card details into the site before thinking again.

I think financial institutions' reaction to this 'scam' speaks volumes:

[Deleted User] said:

My bank (Halifax) are totally unsympathetic although they knew who I was talking about immediately! They just told me to cancel my "account" with the company.  Wouldn't assist me with blocking them taking future payments.  Basically blamed me.  (Yeah, ok, I should read the small print but not great customer services). 

Admiral_Barbarossa

oltemple said:

Some people are very critical of others for not being careful enough (and of course many of us aren't) but I have to say the company concerned is certainly very careful - careful to stay on the right side of the law, and careful to make it very easy for you to think that you are renewing your tax. Certainly I found it easy to get to the point of putting credit card details into the site before thinking again.

This is the page Google took me to:

This is my Google search. 

I had to down in the page to 4th link before people wanted my card details!