Please help - scam?

[JibberJabberBlahBlahBlah]

Morning mumsnetters. I’m hoping someone here may have had the same experience and can advise…. I moved house in December and contacted the DVLA to change the address on my licence. I have email confirmation from them. I realised yesterday that a company called ‘British drive’ have been taking £39 a month from my credit card ever since. I called them - the man was aggressive and said I’d signed up to their subscription service and should have read it more thoroughly. He said I hadn’t changed my address with the DVLA but with them. I had never heard of them before seeing them on my statement. They have sent me an email ‘proving’ that I ticked some box apparently saying I’d signed up. I informed my bank and the DVLA about it. I see on trust pilot than others have been caught out by this. Is there anything I can do to get my money back? Actually, it’s the principle more than the money which I realise is a privileged position. I’m so angry!

No it didn’t occur to me. I thought that was the cost of changing it. It was all the though the dvla website, no other.

So just to confirm, not only have you never heard of this website but they have somehow acquired your credit card details without you ever entering them?

There are many 3rd party websites that claim to offer a Govt service and charge a premium. They are often at the top of a Google search for that service and its not imediately obvious that its not the official website
However, they aren't a scam because they do offer the service you pay for, just at a premium and as is the case here with a subscription for other services.
However, you DO have to actually sign up to them even if its not immediately obvious, OP has an email from the company proving she did do this apparently.
Hopefully she will manage to get this cancelled

Sorry I missed this. I’ve raised a dispute and they look into it. They say 7-10 working days to get a response which is fair enough - I’m just waiting.

The thing is, at no point was I redirected to a third party website. I went through the dvla and that was that.

It was all the though the dvla website, no other.

But it can't have been, because it doesn't cost anything to update your address with the DVLA, so they'd never have asked for your bank details.

It sounds like you went on a dodgy website and managed to sign yourself up for something.

How can you be sure now as to what site you clicked on back in December.
This kind of thing happens frequently. It's how these companies make their money.
I'm surprised you haven't heard of it unless you are very young.

It really was.

@JibberJabberBlahBlahBlah but how? The DVLA don't charge you so you'd never have put your card details in.

I suspect you clicked on a look-a-like website and didn't realise it.

Which would be a scam.

If it really was you nedd to report to DVLA.

Check your browsing history for December. It will show which site did you actually go and if you did got to dvla and got redirectes, or your data stolen, that's a massive issie

For goodness sake. You did not do it through the legitimate DVLA Gov.uk website. It is totally free to change your address on your licence and if you had absolutely gone through the correct steps on the correct site, you would not have handed over your CC details.

A quick google brought up stacks of rip off sites all making themselves look similar to the DVLA, but it's also easy to scroll down and find the correct one.

@JibberJabberBlahBlahBlah there are lots of companies that offer these kinds of "services" - they're dodgy but not scams as such.

And it's not a scam, it's people pulling a fast one. It's unfortunately legal but also immoral.

I know it's no consolation but if you ever update your EHIC card the same thing can happen, there are dozens of these sites, they're not scams, they rely on you simply not checking they're the real thing, they'll do the job for you by submitting them on your behalf then they'll charge you for using their services. They're not actually doing anything illegal I'm afraid.

I have reported to dvla. That’s a good idea about browsing history, thanks.

I did. I have an email from them.

I just googled dvla change my driving licence address and there were 4 companies listed before the official Gov Uk site. I selected the official one and filled in details. It stayed on DVLA, didn’t divert me anywhere and didn’t ask for bank details. I think you must have inadvertently clicked on the wrong site.

Well at least you won't make that mistake again.
And I'm sure you will warn all your friends also.
It's a lesson learned.
And for everyone reading this too.

So you need to wait for the outcome of the dispute and then, if not satisfied, contact the Financial Ombudsman to escalate it. Don't contact the Ombudsman until you've had the bank's response (unless the bank fail to respond at all).

www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk

No, it wasn’t. If it had been the gov DVLA website there wouldn’t have been a charge.

It may have had banners etc which make it look like the DVLA website as you’re paying for a DVLA service, but it absolutely won’t have been the DVLA website.

This kind of thing is really common. As PP said, companies pay to be at the top of google, people do a google search and automatically think that’s the right site. Input their credit card details and bam, you’ve signed up to a subscription. And even if it hadn’t been a subscription, you’ve paid out money unnecessarily as a change of address doesn’t cost.

If you really do think that it’s card fraud then you need to stop your card immediately and request a new one. But a fraud investigation is likely to conclude that the payment was in fact legitimate.

You don’t need to enter any bank details to change your address with the dvla. So you simply cannot have been on the correct website to begin with. Yea it’s wrong that people try to rip others off with these phoney websites, but at the end of the day you did not go through the official dvla website. It would not have asked for any payment.

I thought it was free to change your address on a UK driving licence, so I would have thought there would be no need to enter your card details.

I work in fraud and I have seen people being caught out on such things but if they are a legitimate company, it's not a scam as such, you just need to be hyper aware of what your clicking on and signing up to.

Our fraud team would still look into this, not from a scam point but as a dispute. A dispute is slightly harder with subscription services if you have actually authorised it and they are a legitimate company.

What do you expect the ombudsman to do?

OP clicked on the website and paid them money. These companies are a bit underhand in how they gain people’s custom but they’re not illegal, and neither are they acting illegally if the OP put in her credit card number which in turn would have activated a subscription.

There is no way you did it through the DVLA website as they do not charge for changing your address. So you clearly did it through a third party website and the British Drive website tells you on pretty much every page there is a £39 monthly fee for using them. So it doesn’t seem like a scam but more like user error. Though banks do tend to refund even when people have made mistakes so it’s still possible you’ll get a refund.

And the email from the DVLA would be after British Drive did the application on your behalf.