Fake website for dartford crossing

mahezabin

Why government is not taking actions on fake website, where people pays thinking its a normal website. I paid on dartcrossing.co.uk and then I never got any email of payments or text.
So have to pat back again.

Mark_d

There are lots of scam website out there.  People need to be careful and look at the URL.  A genuine government website address ends in .gov.uk

Have you reported this scam website?

https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/section/about-this-website/report-scam-website

fisherjim

You do have to be careful with these websites they crop up everywhere, however, why do you think it is a "fake" as such?

It is a middleman site that has hit on a way of making money out of arranging payments, for a surcharge, clearly stated as £3 in the T&C's.

Not one I would use and it is a bit of a con that you don't need.

The site even has a link to the "real" Dart Charge site, and clearly states they are not affiliated to the real dart crossing website so they are not hiding anything like a real scam site would, they work out of serviced offices or a mail drop on Hatton Garden. 

Maybe you put in your email address wrong or the details went into spam who knows.

Have you contacted them for a refund there is a link, but you needed to do that within 24hrs.

I would forget it and move on, you could try reporting it, but they seem to have all the necessary information covered to bat things away.

DullGreyGuy

mahezabin said:

Why government is not taking actions on fake website, where people pays thinking its a normal website. I paid on dartcrossing.co.uk and then I never got any email of payments or text.
So have to pat back again.

First of all, if they were trying to stamp them out then it would be like a game of Whac-A-Mole with another popping up as soon as one is taken down. 

Secondly, most of them are not technically doing anything illegal. Some may breach copyright law or trademarks but for example the site you link to isn't using any official logos etc. And indeed in its footer it points out:

Dartcrossing is unaffiliated with any other website charging for the dartford crossing including https://www.gov.uk/pay-dartford-crossing-charge. By continuing you you agree to our terms and conditions and our service fee is payable on completion of the Dartford crossing on this website.

And there's always been the biggest con of them all with the Post Office "Check and Send" "service" for passports. Their £16 fee is a lot more than the £3 fee you paid for the dartford crossing with just as little value added. 

slug1999

Ok so - let’s not make this sound like it’s acceptable. It even sounds like some of these people posting actually might run them - although they may just be stating that this is a ‘legal scam’ . The quoted note of ‘clarity’ comes too late in the process - after payment is made. The company is impossible to track down and has no telephone number. It’s not Wackamole - what a ridiculous thing to say - we would never achieve anything if we didn’t try. 

If this happens to you report the website and speak to your bank - don’t bother to try and email the company involved - after all they are effectively con artists and they notoriously don’t deal well in the customer service department.

Coupon-mad

This thread is almost a year old. However there is new clout that the CMA have this month, to enforce the CPUTRs (misleading/unfair commercial practice).

However, consumers can't report this, only companies. So the Dartford Crossing legit company could report the fake website to the CMA now. 

DullGreyGuy

slug1999 said:

Ok so - let’s not make this sound like it’s acceptable. It even sounds like some of these people posting actually might run them - although they may just be stating that this is a ‘legal scam’ . The quoted note of ‘clarity’ comes too late in the process - after payment is made. 

On the basis I dont use the dartford cross, dont run a website on it and arent going to make a random payment just to see what the process is for the sake of question on a public forum then you are wrong in saying the text is after you have made payment, its on the footer of every page on the website up to when you go to Stripe to make the payment... can't comment on the post payment page as not paying just to find out.

slug1999

Apologies for the tone above - I don’t mean to be so aggressive about it - just frustrated about how these websites are left to operate and are unaccountable and non trackable - everyone above has been fairly level headed about it - but we do need to be a bit less roll over and get a tummy tickle about it 

slug1999

Apologies for the tone above - I don’t mean to be so aggressive about it - just frustrated about how these websites are left to operate and are unaccountable and non trackable - everyone above has been fairly level headed about it - but we do need to be a bit less roll over and get a tummy tickle about it 

DullGreyGuy

slug1999 said:

Apologies for the tone above - I don’t mean to be so aggressive about it - just frustrated about how these websites are left to operate and are unaccountable and non trackable - everyone above has been fairly level headed about it - but we do need to be a bit less roll over and get a tummy tickle about it 

There is no doubt they are a bad thing, but you have to be realistic on the level of control there is by any government over the whole WWW unless you want to get into a repressive state situation where only Government sanctioned websites can be viewed by its citizens (and even then there are ways around it)

Assuming you dont want to vote for a totalitarian state then education of consumers to actually do basic checks is as much a fight against the websites as trying to shut them down... whilst I dont run such a site I bet I could get them up and running in under 15 minutes after one is taken down... 30 if the payment processor has blocked me. Hence the wackamole comment. Hell, could do it in seconds if I pre-planned the likely takedown with 100 sites setup in advance and next one goes live as soon as the current one is taken down. 

The Post Office's "check and send" service is the first one that should go