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!

Worth a try but this company is set up specifically to do this so I imagine they know what they can and can't get away with.

https://www.gov.uk/change-address-driving-licence

This is the official Government site to change the address on a driving licence.

Just to add op - I almost did something similar whilst trying to pay the ULEZ charge on my phone. It’s only because I knew how much it should be (and they were trying to charge me extra) that I twigged it wasn’t the right website. As I said before, it’s easily done.

Then you’d be wrong. A scam would be a website which deliberately mimicked the official government website, and took your money without doing anything.

That just shows the site you did use sent your details to the DVLA. It doesn’t prove you were on the official DVLA site.

It's very easily done, to fall for these scammers, but you need to stop insisting you only went on the official DVLA site, because you obviously didn’t. I know others who have fallen for these scammers same thing.

Maybe but the regulations I quoted upthread are almost always ignored by tradesmen and companies. They are completely unaware of them and they are very draconian provisions.

It won't help you op, but I recently had some stuff to do with the DVLA and discovered that whilst online it says the offices are shut, the DVLA in Swansea is open to the public and I was able to drive there, park easily and walk in and been seeing without any queue!

The lady I saw was helpful and I saved a tremendous amount of time.

Not really, that would have alerted you that it might not be what you wanted to do.

there are loads of similar legal but scam sites for other things.....getting an ESTA, getting a copy of a will, getting house ownership info, to name just a few I have found.

Well I think I found the website (39 a month fee) …….and the people who run it.

Website: https://ukdriveassist.com/pricing/

Companies house: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/11612530/filing-history

You have effectively paid this company to change your address with the DVLA for you. That's why you have a confirmation from the DVLA that you have changed your address.

Hey OP, I recently moved recently and had to change everything, and I know it was difficult navigating to all the correct sites because the way these companies work is they scream official DVLA in their names and the smaller print can be missed if you take your eye off the ball for a second. It's not illegal or scammy but very very immoral and I hate them. The fact you got the email from DVLA doesn't show a scam as sadly that's the service you paid for , albeit it through a 3rd party. These companies prey on knowing people don't mean to use them.

Also a few months I used a service where I paid a small fee (like £2 or something) to use them and then immediately closed my account. However the following month I got charged £30 and when contacting them they said I had ticked a box or clicked something to approve their subscription service. It wasn't a scam and my error as I probably missed the very small print but I did feel conned. And to be fair to my bank they refunded me so definitely try your bank. I can't guarantee but I think you may get your money back. Have you cancelled the subscription now so they can't take more money out?

The email will be in your junk mail. Sorry 🫤

I wouldn’t agree that it’s only a scam if they didn’t do the thing they said they’d do. They are charging £39 per month for a service that’s free by acting as an entirely unnecessary middle man/ agent. They obtain their business by deception by masquerading as some official channel and hope enough people don’t realise they aren’t dealing directly with the DVLA. If the OP lives another 40 years she would pay this company close to 20k for this “service”. No one moves house and needs an update drivers license every month.

SCAM!

Report them to Trading Standards. Are they actually providing the goods and services they say? I looked at their website. They seem to be offering a hassle free service for getting a new or updating a driving licence but it's fairly hassle free anyway whenever I've done it.

It’s very scummy and unethical trading, I almost got caught out once by something similar with the car. But it’s very clever how they make it look like the dvla website when it’s not them

@SwanOfThoseThings do you work for the company the OP is talking about?

No - I don't work for any company or organisation referenced in this thread. Why do you ask?

Whether she gave details or not does not define it to be a scam.

They are not masquerading as the DVLA though, rightly or wrongly they are a legitimate company acting as a middle man, therefore not a scam.

I work in fraud and we wouldn't take this scenario on as a scam, the OP has entered her details onto the companies website, not realising they were setting up a subscription by doing so. They are not pretending to be DVLA, that right there shows you it is not a scam.

When entering any personal details onto websites, especially credit card information, it is always best to check you are on the right page and check the terms and conditions you are signing up for.

Although we wouldn't go down the scam route, we would look at it as a dispute but can be hard to work with if the customer has authorised everything when it is a legitimate website the customer accidently stumble upon.

There are no links on the official government DVLA website to other companies to change your address. You couldn’t have been on the real DVLA website. I suspect you googled DVLA address change and clicked on the top link. it’s not a scam, it’s clear on their website what they do and their charges but it works by people like you not reading the details properly and not ensuring they are on a government website. You had a return from the DVLA because the company did what you paid them to do, which was change your address.

But the OP was convinced they were on the DVLA website - and I think still is! That tells me they have done a good job of presenting the website as a very close match in order to fool people into thinking they are dealing with the DVLA - the branding, colour, font, writing style… that’s what I mean by masquerading.

They may also have a different website that is more obviously an agency - these guys probably have various front ends to their machine to maximize revenue.

It does clearly state on British drive that they are a third party
Basically you paid them to update your details and inadvertently signed up to the £39 subscription.
You received the official DVSA email because your details were updated, but by British drive, not yourself.
You need to change address on the V5 too.
Ensure you cancel the subscription with your bank ASAP
There is also a passport and driving test sites working in the same way.

I had people calling X hotel I worked in complaining about issue using thdir honors points, shouting at me about how they spent 30 min and wd are a disgrace only to go quiet after I asksd them to read out the url. They were on Y hotel website.
They have completely different sites, colour and name on top...

People pay way less attention than one thinks

I think you must have gone on one that looked just like the DVLA one. Same logos, colours, text type, similar web addresses etc.

They sometimes appear higher up on searches than the true DVLA etc sites.

They look very convincing - and do offer a service - hence your communication from the real DVLA. It's just that the service they offer is relatively easy to do yourself for £0.