To be so cross that I have been scammed out of nearly £300

[SuedeEffectPochette]

Renewing a passport. Clicked on a link of what I thought was the official website. Paid £70 a passport. And there are four! And all they did was fill the form in. So cross. Hoping my credit card provider will refund otherwise I will be having to go to the County Court. Miserable me. No one can afford to lose that amount of money TBH I can afford more than most but I can't be the only poor soul who has fallen for this. So angry that somewhere out there other people are victims too, and maybe can afford less than me......

My credit card provider said that they are getting 500 of these a week, so I am not the only mug out there:( They said this is the number two scam at the moment. Number one is free trials, apparently.....

Well done for sharing your story, OP. It's embarrassing to be caught out by crooks like this. Hopefully you sharing what's happened to you will help others to not be caught out in future.

Just to let you know that these are STILL operative.I've been fighting for a refund of £69 for over a month now from Passport-UK.co.uk and have just lost.

They have just told me "no" because they supplied the service. I had tried in vain to contact them within minutes of my application on 10th Feb 2014 and throughout the next day - no response.

In their email today, they say they process within one hour of application.I didn't receive any notification until the evening of my application but the email thanking me for my payment had 08:55 (a.m.) in the time/date field.I was sat at the screen most of the day and have never had such a delay in emails before. They must have delayed it somehow but I can't prove it.

I realised I had been duped only when they displayed information on the screen AFTER I had made my payment (payment info had been below the paperfold on the home page I originally landed on). I tried everything I could - their Ts and Cs say they have a 7 day cooling off period but then another clause says seems to cancel that out if they have provided the service already.

I am so used to applying for official items online these days (car tax for instance) that I let my guard down and fell for their cleverly designed "legal" scam.

I can't afford wasting any more time on these charlatans but I bitterly regret losing my £69 and just had to vent on MN. I feel dumb but at least I am not alone...

My son got stung by this scam too, I fought for 3 months but I got his money back we where just about to go to small claims court when they folded and sent back his money so I hope you get yours back. Must admit I was like a dog with a bone I emailed every week but it worked

Now I've let off some steam, I take heart from your doggedness (pardon the pun) in getting the money back. I may yet take a deep breath and start on the same route.

I'm sorry, but YABU. When you go to the web page it's right there in front of you, "we are not affiliated with HMPO" "you can apply without a checking service where there will be no checking fee applicable" "you can apply autonomously to HMPO, avoiding costs for checking" and there is a comparison between the HMPO service (free) and it makes it clear what you are paying for (ie them checking your application for errors).