Scam - Vehicle Information

cymruchris

One of the problems with this kind of company is that yes, many people do fall for it. For whatever reason, they don't read the prompts on the screen, tick the boxes, and in their mind are 'just renewing the road tax' so they'll tick whatever is necessary to get it done without really thinking through what they're being shown and asked to agree to.

Once scammed, and they realise, and see trustpilot reviews, read a few internet threads, and a bank colleague happening to ask the question whether it was road tax being renewed gets convoluted into 'Most people that renew their road tax fall for this and something needs to be done about it' - when the reality is that as a percentage of those that renew their road tax the correct way - the likely value is probably considerably under 1 percent.

It's enough that the company keeps 'offering their service' - and through their advertising they remain at the top of google searches, so sadly there will always be people who will 'google search - click and buy' no matter what it says on the screen,even if it was flashing bright red 'WE ARE NOT THE DVLA' - there'd still be people that would buy it.

As mentioned - what they're doing isn't inherently wrong. They are a business offering a service, and people sign up for it. It may be morally questionable - but it's not illegal. As internet users, we have to bear some responsibility in terms of where we click and what we accept. The onus is on us to read the screen and agree, and not come back 2 months later screaming 'scam'.

Pollycat

cymruchris said:

One of the problems with this kind of company is that yes, many people do fall for it. For whatever reason, they don't read the prompts on the screen, tick the boxes, and in their mind are 'just renewing the road tax' so they'll tick whatever is necessary to get it done without really thinking through what they're being shown and asked to agree to.

Once scammed, and they realise, and see trustpilot reviews, read a few internet threads, and a bank colleague happening to ask the question whether it was road tax being renewed gets convoluted into 'Most people that renew their road tax fall for this and something needs to be done about it' - when the reality is that as a percentage of those that renew their road tax the correct way - the likely value is probably considerably under 1 percent.

It's enough that the company keeps 'offering their service' - and through their advertising they remain at the top of google searches, so sadly there will always be people who will 'google search - click and buy' no matter what it says on the screen,even if it was flashing bright red 'WE ARE NOT THE DVLA' - there'd still be people that would buy it.

As mentioned - what they're doing isn't inherently wrong. They are a business offering a service, and people sign up for it. It may be morally questionable - but it's not illegal. As internet users, we have to bear some responsibility in terms of where we click and what we accept. The onus is on us to read the screen and agree, and not come back 2 months later screaming 'scam'.

Excellent post.

In reality, Google should be doing something about these websites as they are against their rules.
But they seem to be failing according to the BBC article from almost 2 years ago.

Adverts for unofficial services selling government documents such as travel permits and driving licences are against Google's own rules.

But the BBC found adverts for expensive third-party sellers every time it searched during a 12-month period.

In a statement Google said it had taken down billions of rule-breaking adverts.

diystarter7

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.

Hi

I must have misheard but I thought these type of sites were being outlawed.

You have it with visas, sales assessments, tv licenses, land registries and so on.

When looking at a visa recently to india online - it took some hard double checking, but as i the uk, the government sites have,gov and india gov site is .in  -


Alsmot anyone can get caught out if in a hurry or not familar. I've not been caught out as yet but can easily happen and sites like this should be banned from looking like the offical sites.

Thanks

Pollycat

diystarter7 said:

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.

Hi

I must have misheard but I thought these type of sites were being outlawed.

You have it with visas, sales assessments, tv licenses, land registries and so on.

When looking at a visa recently to india online - it took some hard double checking, but as i the uk, the government sites have,gov and india gov site is .in  -


Alsmot anyone can get caught out if in a hurry or not familar. I've not been caught out as yet but can easily happen and sites like this should be banned from looking like the offical sites.

Thanks

I don't know about other'copycat' websites but this one under discussion looks nothing like the official gov.uk website.

A for the websites being outlawed, even Martin Lewis agreed they are not scam sites.
See my link to a BBC article on the previous page.

diystarter7

I did not say it was a scam site but some look alike and at times people are not aware what they should look like. I said the site should be clear if its a gov site or not

Foud this link to help people if it looks offical but is not but I think as those sites have been reported, some sites are working on the basis that most people, inc me won't really know what a gov site looks like and need to inspect the web address closely - as per my post EY a gov site ends in .gov for england

This may help others  - a gov site is gov.uk

https://www.gov.uk/help/about-govuk#:~:text=GOV.UK is the website,Government Digital Service ( GDS ).

Thnaks

Pollycat

diystarter7 said:

I did not say it was a scam site but some look alike and at times people are not aware what they should look like. I said the site should be clear if its a gov site or not

Foud this link to help people if it looks offical but is not but I think as those sites have been reported, some sites are working on the basis that most people, inc me won't really know what a gov site looks like and need to inspect the web address closely - as per my post EY a gov site ends in .gov for england

This may help others  - a gov site is gov.uk

https://www.gov.uk/help/about-govuk#:~:text=GOV.UK is the website,Government Digital Service ( GDS ).

Thnaks

I know you didn't call it a scam site but it is in the title and a term used by a number of posters on the thread.
There is a disclaimer on the website (and all others I've looked at) that they are not affiliated to gov.uk.
This may (or may not) be why they aren't being closed down.

Manxman_in_exile

Celurca said:

... I have reported this site to Trading Standards.

Out of interest, how did you manage to contact TS, and did you get any acknowledgement from them?

Manxman_in_exile

diystarter7 said:

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.

Hi

I must have misheard but I thought these type of sites were being outlawed...

Where have you heard that from?

Pollycat

Can they be 'outlawed' if they are not scammers?
Not sure who diystarter7 means would do the 'outlawing'.
According to the BBC link I posted upthread Google were supposed to be removing websites that contravened their rules.
Not sure if these websites have changed things to comply with Google.

The bottom line is people need to be careful who they are giving their money to and understand what they are paying for.

Michaelkissey

i was conned by this company but accept i was caught easily. it was a cheap way to learn to be more careful. the one thing to me that makes this a scam is that you register with e-mail account but you do not receive email to confirm what you have just  entered into.  this is a deliberate tactic by company to hide they have conned you.