Changing Address on Driving License - Warning

HayleyD83

EDIT - I have successfully managed to raise a dispute with my bank and had the money refunded to my account. I had no idea anything like this even existed so apologies to those of you who seem to be so triggered by my post that you felt the need to go out of your way to make me feel even more stupid. And thank you to the few of you who were mildly sympathetic or helpful. It has certainly made me think twice about ever posting anything on here again. Over and out 


Hi All, 
I had a brief look and couldn't see any similar threads, apologies if this has already been covered. Not looking for advice here more of a warning. I fell victim to what I can only describe as quasi legal scam yesterday. Wanting to change my address on my driving licence, did a google search as you do, started completing what looked like and I genuinely thought was a gov.uk website and some how ended up £80 lighter. I am never normally one to fall for these sorts of things but the website was a carbon copy (same fonts use of green 'apply here' boxes. The worst part of the whole sorry fiasco is that I also divulged a shed load of personal information (passport no, NI number) Which has caused me all manner of headaches. BE ALERT! 

Paully28

https://www.gov.uk/change-address-driving-licence?step-by-step-nav=c1f13d41-ed7f-44a3-be11-fd95525ddf40

macman

It's 100% legal and it's not a scam. You engaged a third party to process your change of address and willingly paid £80 for them to do it for you, when the direct service is free.
The commercial listing has 'Ad' against it and is a .co.uk address. The .gov.uk one is the third one down on the search page.
If it's any consolation, this comes up most weeks.

AdrianC

HayleyD83 said:

I had a brief look and couldn't see any similar threads

Page 1 of the motoring forum at the moment...
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6270557/fallen-for-licence-renewal-scam-site-can-i-get-my-money-back
A few pages and a couple of weeks further back...
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6265950/driving-license-renewal-assistance-electronic-check-ltd-beware
(etc etc - searching will find a lot more similar threads)
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/search?Search=licence+scam+site

If you are not able to distinguish between google's "sponsored" (ad) results and genuine search results, install an adblocker.

But even if you do end up on these sites, they are rarely coy about the fact they are a commercial site offering "additional services" in return for a fee. You may not think these services are good value. I may well agree with you on that. The information is there - they are not a "scam". They do not look a bit like DVLA's gov.uk website.

Yes, be alert. Read what you're clicking before clicking it.

teachfast

This is an impersonation scam in anyone's book. The law may allow it but that doesn't stop community hatred for this duping approach, nor does it stop contempt for those that allow it to happen. 

It's misrepresentation for money, which in other areas of law is a criminal offense. 

pogofish

There are a great many threads about this here already - incl stickies in appropriate forums.  
This is a much wider issue than just motoring!

HayleyD83

macman said:

It's 100% legal and it's not a scam. You engaged a third party to process your change of address and willingly paid £80 for them to do it for you, when the direct service is free.
The commercial listing has 'Ad' against it and is a .co.uk address. The .gov.uk one is the third one down on the search page.
If it's any consolation, this comes up most weeks.

Actually no I didn't - I only entered my payment details because it said the charge was £0 so I did not authorise them to take a penny from my account. This particular site is being investigated by the national intelligence office due to the nature of information which has been gathered and due the fact that they have lied about the amount of money being debited. To all those saying I should have known it was not legal. I didn't know it was an Ad fair point but it was realistic enough to have me believe it was a gov.uk site 

HayleyD83

pogofish said:

There are a great many threads about this here already - incl stickies in appropriate forums.  
This is a much wider issue than just motoring!

Thanks - complete news to me! clearly I need to spend a bit more time staying up to date with what is going on in the world 

AdrianC

HayleyD83 said:

macman said:

It's 100% legal and it's not a scam. You engaged a third party to process your change of address and willingly paid £80 for them to do it for you, when the direct service is free.
The commercial listing has 'Ad' against it and is a .co.uk address. The .gov.uk one is the third one down on the search page.
If it's any consolation, this comes up most weeks.

Actually no I didn't - I only entered my payment details because it said the charge was £0 so I did not authorise them to take a penny from my account. This particular site is being investigated by the national intelligence office due to the nature of information which has been gathered and due the fact that they have lied about the amount of money being debited. To all those saying I should have known it was not legal. I didn't know it was an Ad fair point but it was realistic enough to have me believe it was a gov.uk site 

Which site is it?

TooManyPoints

If you did not authorise any payment you should contact your credit card provider.

I'm afraid I do not agree that these sites are identical to the DVLA's. I've just looked at two - one of which is probably the one you used. At the top of the page is a banner saying this:

This is an optional checking service with charges from £49, additional and separate to any DVLA fee, which in some cases can be free. Applications can be made directly on gov.uk without a checking service fee.

The other has a similar banner:

This is a third party check and send service with an added service fee from £49, this is additional to any fees from the DVLA, which in some cases can be free. Applications can be made directly on gov.uk without any service fee.

HayleyD83

AdrianC said:

HayleyD83 said:

macman said:

It's 100% legal and it's not a scam. You engaged a third party to process your change of address and willingly paid £80 for them to do it for you, when the direct service is free.
The commercial listing has 'Ad' against it and is a .co.uk address. The .gov.uk one is the third one down on the search page.
If it's any consolation, this comes up most weeks.

Actually no I didn't - I only entered my payment details because it said the charge was £0 so I did not authorise them to take a penny from my account. This particular site is being investigated by the national intelligence office due to the nature of information which has been gathered and due the fact that they have lied about the amount of money being debited. To all those saying I should have known it was not legal. I didn't know it was an Ad fair point but it was realistic enough to have me believe it was a gov.uk site 

Which site is it?

Driving Support Online - I have just logged on to the site again and I swear to god they have completely changed the look of the site since yesterday!!!! To be honest with you after reading how many thousands of people have also been caught out with this I feel a bit silly but I am also far less concerned about the money as I am the fact that they have access to enough of my information to cause serious damage