Driving licence replacement scam!

Manxman_in_exile

What I don't understand is why, when people are given the correct website address to go to (as you are by the DVLA when they send you a licence reminder), people still google it rather than put it in the address bar and then go straight to the legit site?

AdrianC

Manxman_in_exile said:

What I don't understand is why, when people are given the correct website address to go to (as you are by the DVLA when they send you a licence reminder), people still google it rather than put it in the address bar and then go straight to the legit site?

Simple. They don't know how to use their browser.

zagfles

Pollycat said:

zagfles said:

born_again said:

zagfles said:

That's what Richard Howard thought. As did loads of MSE posters.

Several court cases proved them all wrong

Chargebacks have nothing to do with courts. They are card regulations. Which are over and above your legal rights.

Customer claims they were misled. Bank may or may not agree, but as courts have decided in favour of people that were misled by similar shyster sites, it's worth trying. Otherwise there's small claims. Or asking for a refund, which apparently often works.

IIRC, at the time of the court case the fact that these websites were not the official GOV.UK passport renewal website was hidden in the small print.

Oh no, apparently it was perfectly clear then too - look at this thread started before all the court cases, just in the second post and repeated again and again in the massive thread

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4869030/steps-to-take-if-you-have-been-ripped-off-by-a-copy-cat-government-website

Pollycat

zagfles said:

Pollycat said:

zagfles said:

born_again said:

zagfles said:

That's what Richard Howard thought. As did loads of MSE posters.

Several court cases proved them all wrong

Chargebacks have nothing to do with courts. They are card regulations. Which are over and above your legal rights.

Customer claims they were misled. Bank may or may not agree, but as courts have decided in favour of people that were misled by similar shyster sites, it's worth trying. Otherwise there's small claims. Or asking for a refund, which apparently often works.

IIRC, at the time of the court case the fact that these websites were not the official GOV.UK passport renewal website was hidden in the small print.

Oh no, apparently it was perfectly clear then too - look at this thread started before all the court cases, just in the second post and repeated again and again in the massive thread

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4869030/steps-to-take-if-you-have-been-ripped-off-by-a-copy-cat-government-website

I remember that thread and the poster who started it.

You may have noticed that on page one there is reference to a specific instance where someone's bank refused to refund the money paid.

I reiterate:

Pollycat said:

I also remember that some people recovered their money from their bank only for it to be clawed back by the bank.

But it is worth a try (although the OP appears to have settled for a partial refund so I'm not sure if that is an option).

Better still, be wary of search results that have Ad against them.

And read what you are signing up to.

And check the amount you are being charged against what you are expecting to pay.

^^^^ this applies to all online transactions.

zagfles

It's also worth reporting the site to Google so those clever engineers can remove it from their searches, as advised in the recent MSE article https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2021/06/dvla/

AdrianC

zagfles said:

It's also worth reporting the site to Google so those clever engineers can remove it from their searches, as advised in the recent MSE article https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2021/06/dvla/

Or use an adblocker, so you don't see sponsored links at all.

That's what these are - paid ads. They state as much in the search result.
Again, it comes down to the user learning how to use your browser...

Pollycat

zagfles said:

It's also worth reporting the site to Google so those clever engineers can remove it from their searches, as advised in the recent MSE article https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2021/06/dvla/

Which section do these websites fall into?

Report an ad

Please know that the ads in our program are reviewed according to our advertising guidelines. While we make every effort to ensure that ads which may violate our policies do not run prior to review, some ads may run on Google before our Google Ads Specialists check them.

Please keep in mind that you will need to provide us the clickstring of the ad you are giving feedback about. Filling out this form will take approximately 2-3 minutes.

For clarification about the below terms please refer to our ads policy site.

Please choose the option that best describes your complaint

• An ad violates trademark policy
• An ad violates counterfeit goods policy
• An ad violates other Google Ads policies
• Multiple ads are showing for one company ("Gaining an unfair advantage" policy)

zagfles

Don't know, it was MSE's advice, and those clever google engineers have removed these ads in the past. I'd go for "violates other google ads policies"

In fact I've just searched "driving licence renewal uk" and without the uk, and same for passports, and ZERO ads!

So looks like they've already sorted it!

Result!

Pollycat

zagfles said:

Don't know, it was MSE's advice, and those clever google engineers have removed these ads in the past. I'd go for "violates other google ads policies"

In fact I've just searched "driving licence renewal uk" and without the uk, and same for passports, and ZERO ads!

So looks like they've already sorted it!

Result!

I've just searched 'driving licence renewal' and vehicleonlineservice and driveronlinesupport came up - with Ad at the side - before gov.uk.

So maybe they've not sorted it.

Result - not.

zagfles

Pollycat said:

zagfles said:

Don't know, it was MSE's advice, and those clever google engineers have removed these ads in the past. I'd go for "violates other google ads policies"

In fact I've just searched "driving licence renewal uk" and without the uk, and same for passports, and ZERO ads!

So looks like they've already sorted it!

Result!

I've just searched 'driving licence renewal' and vehicleonlineservice and driveronlinesupport came up - with Ad at the side - before gov.uk.

So maybe they've not sorted it.

Result - not.

I get gov.uk as the first 3 results, then a few more genuine results, inc some newspaper reports, and right at the bottom of the page there are a couple of ads. So pretty pointless, nobody's going to scroll to the bottom when the genuine gov.uk results are at the top. Are you looking at your screen upside down