Scam - Vehicle Information

cymruchris

Admiral_Barbarossa said:

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!

Your google search btw was for mot status - not renewing tax....

ellisah1

It's very easy to feel superior and dismiss those who have fallen for this as stupid.  One should recognise however that even the most experienced and aware of people can fall for these deceptions when they are harassed and overburdened.   I am normally extremely vigilant regarding such immoral scams, and in other circumstances would have recognised the clear warning signs which others have mentioned (the non DVLA address being the most obvious).  Under extreme time pressure I Googled tax renewal and clicked on their website, which did NOT lead to an honest home page explaining their business or charges, but rather asked me merely to enter my reg. number and then requested payment.   I foolishly input details, but fortunately Barclaycard declined their attempted charge to my account.  I immediately realised my error and was able to freeze my account before any money had been taken.  I will now have to request a new card with different details.  Such blatant attempts to deceive should be made illegal.  

tempus_fugit

ellisah1 said:

It's very easy to feel superior and dismiss those who have fallen for this as stupid.  One should recognise however that even the most experienced and aware of people can fall for these deceptions when they are harassed and overburdened.   I am normally extremely vigilant regarding such immoral scams, and in other circumstances would have recognised the clear warning signs which others have mentioned (the non DVLA address being the most obvious).  Under extreme time pressure I Googled tax renewal and clicked on their website, which did NOT lead to an honest home page explaining their business or charges, but rather asked me merely to enter my reg. number and then requested payment.   I foolishly input details, but fortunately Barclaycard declined their attempted charge to my account.  I immediately realised my error and was able to freeze my account before any money had been taken.  I will now have to request a new card with different details.  Such blatant attempts to deceive should be made illegal.  

So, maybe it's best not to leave your tax renewal until the last minute and do it when you are not feeling "harassed and overburdened". I don't know about you but we always get a renewal reminder around a month in advance and it always has the web address and the unique code to use to renew it via their web site. Consequently we have never found ourselves in a rush searching Google on how to renew our car tax. I've also seen way too many Ripoff Britain's and such like with people constantly falling for this one for it not to have sunk in what to be wary of. I'm sorry if this makes me sound "superior", but some of these scams (and most of them are just variations on the same method) have been around so long it surprises me how so many people are still unaware of them.

MorningcoffeeIV

ellisah1 said:

One should recognise however that even the most experienced and aware of people can fall for these deceptions when they are harassed and overburdened.   

That's clearly not true, or we'd all have fallen or it.

Whereas in reality, one should recognise that it's just a very small proportion of people who are unfamiliar with the internet who fall for it.

Celurca

I don’t agree that it is a very small proportion of people who will fall for this scam. Trustpilot has multiple posts from people who have been scammed and when I contacted my bank the first thing they asked was had I renewed my vehicle tax recently. They confirmed that many customers had the same issue. 

MorningcoffeeIV

'Multiple posts on Trustpilot' ≠ 'large proportion of population'.

Pollycat

Celurca said:

I don’t agree that it is a very small proportion of people who will fall for this scam. Trustpilot has multiple posts from people who have been scammed and when I contacted my bank the first thing they asked was had I renewed my vehicle tax recently. They confirmed that many customers had the same issue. 

How many people have posted on Trustpilot versus the number of people who have renewed their car tax without being "scammed"?

And it's not a scam - in the words of Martin Lewis:

"They are not scams, they're shysters," said Martin Lewis, founder of the website Money Saving Expert.

"They're not stealing your money, they're charging you a fee for something that is completely pointless."

From this article:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-56886957

Celurca

The point is that those who are paying for this ‘service’ are unaware that is what they are doing and believe that they have paid their road tax. Vehicleenquiry.uk can easily be mistaken for the DVLA Vehicle Enquiry service. You may consider the posts on Trustpilot insignificant, but surely the fact that the first question from bank fraud lines is ‘have you renewed your road tax recently?’ is an indication that there are more than a few people falling for this. I have reported this site to Trading Standards.

Pollycat

Celurca said:

The point is that those who are paying for this ‘service’ are unaware that is what they are doing and believe that they have paid their road tax. Vehicleenquiry.uk can easily be mistaken for the DVLA Vehicle Enquiry service. You may consider the posts on Trustpilot insignificant, but surely the fact that the first question from bank fraud lines is ‘have you renewed your road tax recently?’ is an indication that there are more than a few people falling for this. I have reported this site to Trading Standards.

What do you think TS will do?

From the article link my my post above:

Websites like these are not illegal and customers may still get the documents for which they have applied.

The 2 websites do not look the same.

At the bottom of the home page of vehicleenquiry websire it clearly states:

Vehicle Enquiry receives data from a 3rd party licensed data provider and is not affiliated with the government.

Why don't people take more care when buying anything on line?

Maybe some of the new posters could return to this thread and say whether their bank has refunded them for this "fraud".

MarvinDay

Celurca said:

Vehicleenquiry.uk can easily be mistaken for the DVLA Vehicle Enquiry service. 

Not by anyone who takes a couple of minutes to read the T&C's, something that they tick a box to state that they accept.
Also, there is nothing whatsoever on the Vehicleenquiry website to state or imply that they are either the official DVLA website or are affiliated with it in any way. In fact, every page of their site has this disclaimer:

Vehicle Enquiry receives data from a 3rd party licensed data provider and is not affiliated with the government.

and add to this the fact that it is clearly stated many times that you are paying for a subscription service, something that you have to tick a box for before finally paying:

and I honestly can't see why anyone who takes a little bit of care regarding financial transactions could possibly think they are dealing with the DVLA.