Yet Another Land Registry Scammer

planckfund

Just been caught by the Land Registry fake site landregistryonline.org.uk that charged me £79 for a copy of a £3 Land Registry title --- it looked very plausible as the Land Registry website and comes very high in searches - the  real site is actually hard to find and as I had half-remembered talk of it being privatised, I was consequently not surprised with the price being a lot higher than I had emembered from 10 years ago when I last looked up a LR  title----I was in a hurry anyway so didn't look too closely.  The card transaction came up in my card statement as LAND REGISTRY ONLINE whilst the real one would HM LAND REGISTRY - ONLINE. So this is clearly a deliberate attempt to impersonate LR.  Of course in the small print which is nowhere near the products or payments page they tell you that the actual company is Gate Three Limited trading as landregistryonline.org uk from 2020 and I found out the director is Stephen Olliver (real name?) registered at Office 7 35-37 Ludgate Hill, London, England, EC4M 7JN from Companies House . I am not an idiot but have been a high performing finance professional in another life with an excellent nose for scams and have never before to my knowledge fallen for one. Clearly this particular trap has been operating perfectly openly for years. Why do the Land Registry and others tolerate these fake sites? Why do they credit card companies tolerate been used to cheat their customers? There are surely easy remedies to this? Why does Google take money from these  scam outfits for their ads?

Does anyone have details about this clown?

So sad to live in sleazy old post-Brexit Britain.....

user1977

planckfund said:

the  real site is actually hard to find

In what way? Do a Google search for "Land Registry" and the whole first page of results are either pages within HM Land Registry's website, the (official) Scottish land Register, HMLR's Twitter feed, or the Wikipedia page about HMLR. I need to go on to the second page of results before any of the scam-esque people appear.

hazyjo

They're not necessarily fake. They just charge a pricey fee for the same service (presume they did actually provide what you paid them for?).

You feel ripped off as you didn't know it should only cost £3.

Pok3mon

TBF you have not been scammed, you have just paid for a service you could have done yourself.

Like getting a takeaway delivered you could have gone and got it yourself but you pay someone to deliver it.

Is it cheaky maybe, against the law no you chosen to use their service.

TadleyBaggie

On the home page it clearly states:

We are an independent supplier of conveyancing searches and are not affiliated with the UK Government or HM Land Registry.

london21

planckfund said:

Just been caught by the Land Registry fake site landregistryonline.org.uk that charged me £79 for a copy of a £3 Land Registry title --- it looked very plausible as the Land Registry website and comes very high in searches - the  real site is actually hard to find and as I had half-remembered talk of it being privatised, I was consequently not surprised with the price being a lot higher than I had emembered from 10 years ago when I last looked up a LR  title----I was in a hurry anyway so didn't look too closely.  The card transaction came up in my card statement as LAND REGISTRY ONLINE whilst the real one would HM LAND REGISTRY - ONLINE. So this is clearly a deliberate attempt to impersonate LR.  Of course in the small print which is nowhere near the products or payments page they tell you that the actual company is Gate Three Limited trading as landregistryonline.org uk from 2020 and I found out the director is Stephen Olliver (real name?) registered at Office 7 35-37 Ludgate Hill, London, England, EC4M 7JN from Companies House . I am not an idiot but have been a high performing finance professional in another life with an excellent nose for scams and have never before to my knowledge fallen for one. Clearly this particular trap has been operating perfectly openly for years. Why do the Land Registry and others tolerate these fake sites? Why do they credit card companies tolerate been used to cheat their customers? There are surely easy remedies to this? Why does Google take money from these  scam outfits for their ads?

Does anyone have details about this clown?

So sad to live in sleazy old post-Brexit Britain.....

So annoying, they pay to be at the top of the page. This is more common nowadays.

planckfund

The only reason to click on this website for copies of land registry titles is because you think it's the genuine land registry website online, and you believe that you are indeed paying for copies of land registry titles at the correct price, as I did. 

Some people seem to feel because much lower down on the page there is a disclaimer to say that this is not in fact the land registry website, it's ok to fool retail customers as it's their fault that they should read everything down to the end of the page before clicking on the prominent 'search now' button. This is the typical scammers' wishful misunderstanding that they are not misrepresenting themselves because 'smart' people aren't fooled and hey who cares if stupid, lazy, rich people get caught. 

The sole purpose of this 'business' is to fool the unwary and not provide any service and if the Land Registry wasn't such a smug lazy outfit with a second-rate website, it would do something about it. Do you think McDonalds would tolerate www.McDonaldsOnline.org.uk' ? I rest my case. What a sad, sorry corrupt little country this is turning into.

hazyjo

planckfund said:

The only reason to click on this website for copies of land registry titles is because you think it's the genuine land registry website online, and you believe that you are indeed paying for copies of land registry titles at the correct price, as I did. 

Some people seem to feel because much lower down on the page there is a disclaimer to say that this is not in fact the land registry website, it's ok to fool retail customers as it's their fault that they should read everything down to the end of the page before clicking on the prominent 'search now' button. This is the typical scammers' wishful misunderstanding that they are not misrepresenting themselves because 'smart' people aren't fooled and hey who cares if stupid, lazy, rich people get caught. 

The sole purpose of this 'business' is to fool the unwary and not provide any service and if the Land Registry wasn't such a smug lazy outfit with a second-rate website, it would do something about it. Do you think McDonalds would tolerate www.McDonaldsOnline.org.uk' ? I rest my case. What a sad, sorry corrupt little country this is turning into.

tbh I'm surprised there's not a mcdonaldsonline website where you pay someone else to get you a mcdonalds. I suppose they don't need one what with justeat and the likes of those. You're implying they'd make burgers and sell them pretending to be mcdonalds. That's not the case here is it, they are merely acting as an unnecessary middle man.

I admit it's sneaky, but nobody is forging anything, they're getting the result from the legit source, not taking your money and running. They are preying on those who don't know how much it should cost.

planckfund

you're not getting it --- actually they are attempting to misrepresent themselves as being mcdonalds themselves supplying you with their burgers  - when in fact they are buying them as third parties and selling them on with a markup-----this means that you will not have a contractual relationship with MdDonalds and, for example, if you get food poisoning, you will not be able to sue McDonalds because they never sold you anything, only rinky dinky morally-challenged Stephen Olliver.. This is misrepresentation.  

Sunsaru

This site is not a .gov site. It's just a professional looking site offering a service. A service you paid for and got.

Nowhere does it claim or pretend to be a government site or related to the government. They have misrepresented nothing.

This site has not broken the law, you've just paid more than you should have.

The HM Land Registry site is not hard to find at all.

Move on and next time pay more attention.

Sorry to be blunt but those are the facts.

user1977

planckfund said:

you're not getting it --- actually they are attempting to misrepresent themselves as being mcdonalds themselves supplying you with their burgers  - when in fact they are buying them as third parties and selling them on with a markup-----this means that you will not have a contractual relationship with MdDonalds and, for example, if you get food poisoning, you will not be able to sue McDonalds because they never sold you anything, only rinky dinky morally-challenged Stephen Olliver.. This is misrepresentation.  

I can't see how you're disadvantaged in that way - the information they're providing is genuinely from the Land Registry, and it makes no difference to the Land Registry's warranty whether that info is gained via a third party or not.