DO NOT USE THIS WEBSITE - I have been scammed

[ihavebeenscammed]

Aghhhhhhh so angry.

Needed to renew DD's passport, googled the passport website and clicked on the following link

uk-passport.net/

Was in a rush and filled out the form for a renewal for under 16, and put my credit card details in for 46 passport fee.

Form came back completed in the post a few days later and I took it to the post office with the photos and did check and send, paid again but didn't think anything of it as a message came up when I put my credit card details on the site saying they wouldn't charge my card until the form was submitted.

Anyway turns out it is a total scam, they are not related to the passport office and are just charging you the fee simply to send you out the form you complete online. I realised when checking my credit card bill and saw I had paid twice, once the fee to uk-passport.net and once the check and send fee so rang to find out.

There actually is a disclaimer at the top of the site saying they are unconnected to the passport office, but I didn't notice this. I feel such a fool as am normally so careful about this stuff but was in a rush needed to get a passport quickly.

The guy at the passport office said I was lucky I had done check and send as people have sent their forms back thinking they have paid but then they get delayed as they haven't actually paid and people have missed their holiday he said loads of people are getting sucked into this.

They can't shut this site down, and apparently they are doing the same with DVLA applications and other.

My credit card company are disputing the transcation for me so hopefully I will get the money back they were also aware of the site and have had lots of customers have the same problem.

So Mad!!!!!!

[copafeel]

Oh I yearn for the days when the internet was only available to relatively intelligent people and not people who aren't safe with a paper and pencil

[ilovepowerhoop]

the whole front page gives a disclaimer and a comparison between their site and the official Government site so is in no way a scam. It even says the official website is free and that theirs has a service charge.

[missingmumxox]

Copa get back in your box love, your correct you shouldn't be on the internet.

I get pissed off that my own union send me out details of companies like this offering to get my tax back for a small fee, years ago they just sent out a a4 sheet with all the different deductions on, know they clearly get a kick back on it!
Yes RCN, I am looking at you... You can just phone the tax office and sort this stuff out for free

[WowserBowser]

Yeah that's what i mean ihave

You paid for a service and received that service. The credit card company i worked for wouldn't have done a chargeback for that reason.

Having said that, i hope you get your money back!

[Feenie]

But no one needs a form checking fucking service - it's a redundant concept, and anyone falling for it pays for it because they think it's the official site, no one actually needs their form checked.

You can call it a scam cashing in on people's stupidity if you like, but it's still not right - anyone using it has been duped.

[Roshbegosh]

Please copafeel who do you think you are? Honestly you are the fuckwit here saying something so patronising to people that have been conned by a company set up for the sole purpose of conning people.

It is obviously such a convincing site that people don't read all the small print properly as they trust it to be what they googled for. I am glad I have been warned.

[Feenie]

Copafeel - you have essentially popped on to a thread to say 'thank god I am cleverer than everyone else here'. Don't be surprised if you receive lots of flack therefore, it's thoroughly deserved.

[Raxacoricofallapatorius]

I knew before I even clicked on the thread what this would be about.

There are very regular threads on this. Passports, health cards, driving licences etc. People are caught out all the time.

[BiscuitsAreMyDownfall]

I think I found one of these when trying to buy my car tax online. I realised and found the right website before I made any payment.

[ProfYaffle]

I'm a CAB advisor, we always tell clients to click through from our website //www.adviceguide.org.uk for any application like that. The links are always verified as being the genuine article.

[JumbledAndTumbled]

If this has just happened you may be able to get you money back from the company. You have to complain but it can be done. Paul Lewis covered this on BBC Radio 4's MoneyBox. You can listen to it HERE. I listened to it when it. First came out and I am pretty sure some of the companies would refund.

I have no idea why the government is so slow to ban this type of company. They are designed to confuse you. Although, I suppose ,lots of legitimate companies are more than happy to confuse their customers . Think of how supermarkets price things in such a complicated way.

Unfortunately some companies have no shame.
I hope Money Savings Experts,Martin Lewis and MoneyBoxes Paul Lewis can put some more pressure on trading standards and the government.

[davidjrmum]

These sites are deliberately designed to deceive and it has nothing to do with how intelligent someone is. I did a training course a few years ago where the trainer played a video of a group of people in an office playing with a basketball. The trainer asked us to count how many times the basketball was bounced on the floor which we all did. When the video was finished the trainer asked us if we had noticed anything strange in the video. No-one had. He played it again and this time we all saw a man in a gorilla suit walk across the screen. We didn't see him the first time we saw the video because we were focused on doing something else, e.g. counting the bounces of the basketball. It is this psychology that the people building these sites are using. They do display some information on the home page which anyone aware of these sort of sites would notice straight away. However, for someone who isn't aware of these sites they only notice the things they are expecting to see to carry out the transaction that they are trying to do, such as the big button which says something like, "click here to renew your passport.". Afterwards, when you realise you've been scammed you look back at the page and wonder how on earth you missed the info that says this is not an official government site. And of course, anyone reading this thread or who has heard about these scams before, looks at the same page and wonders how you missed it to. If you fall for this, you are the victim of a clever psychological trick - you're no more or less intelligent than anyone else. My personal view is that the people who build this sites should be absolutely ashamed of themselves - it's easy to make money if you have no conscience whatsoever.

[JumbledAndTumbled]

UK passport.net will issue refunds but only if they haven't started processing your application. I wonder how quickly that happens . I am guessing it's instantaneous

[DuckworthLewis]

Its not a scam, you just didn't read the site properly.

How about you take responsibility for yourself?

Unbelievable how many people look for someone (anyone) else to blame other than themselves...

[BertieBotts]

They have these for all of the official documents you can apply for - birth certificate copies, EHIC cards, passport, driving licence etc.

It's safer to go into the post office and get the form in person, it's free, you don't have any worries about it being unofficial and you get a little booklet which tells you how to fill it in as well.

I think the reason the companies aren't illegal is that they are offering something perfectly legal - to get hold of a form for you. If they made that illegal then it would be impossible for some people to get forms - for example someone with a disability which means they can't leave the house or use a computer, or a small child. It would mean adding an extra layer of red tape for parents or carers to get a form for people in this situation.

[Fecklessdizzy]

You can get a refund out of them - I did exactly the same as you, thought it was the passport office and then realised after I'd paid that they weren't.
I rang them up and asked them to cancel the payment, which they did.

Bloody annoying though - I suppose the moral is always read the small print!

[DuckworthLewis]

YY bertie

DH's company uses an agency to obtain all the visas that the various executives need when they travel on company business.

It's eye-wateringly expensive, whereas it would be free to do it themselves. It just saves the hassle, and they consider it to be an effective use of resources.

Would OP consider that a 'scam' too?

[LittleprincessinGOLDrocks]

Here is the MSE guide

[BertieBotts]

I think that's exactly the issue Duckworth, that for businesses etc it does make sense and it is a fair expense. Individuals should not be directed towards these services, however perhaps the problem is more people trusting google blindly and picking the first result - the first result isn't always the best or most correct one, it's just the most successful company!

Generally UK government websites are ALL based on www.gov.uk so if you see a different web address, treat as suspect.

[Feenie]

Its not a scam, you just didn't read the site properly.

How about you take responsibility for yourself?

Unbelievable how many people look for someone (anyone) else to blame other than themselves...

Yes, it's entirely reasonable therefore to have a business which is entirely based on others' stupidity - that makes it totally ok.

Unbelievable how many people look for threads to be smug and irritating on.

[diddl]

I though that the genuine site did come up first tbh.

It also clearly showa that there is no "service charge" on the official site.

[AWimbaWay]

I got sucked in by this site, e111.org/

Personally I don't think it was at all obvious this wasn't the 'official' site.

[AWimbaWay]

And the site above is the first that comes up when I google E111.

[davidjrmum]

"the first result isn't always the best or most correct one, it's just the most successful company!" This isn't correct. The first result is the one that a company has paid for using google adwords - it's nothing to do with being the most successful company. I could set up one of these scam sites in a couple of hours, then set up a google adwords account which takes minutes and pay to appear straight away for search phrases such as "renew passport". If I pay enough I'll appear at the top of the search results. We have an online business and do exactly this to appear at the top of the search results for some of the product ranges that we sell. Google have recently changed their search results very recently so that adverts at least have the word ad in yellow next to them. Prior to that, depending on the resolution, brightness setting etc. of your screen the ads and the natural search results could look exactly the same.
If you search now on renew passport you will see that the result that appears at the top is actually an ad. Click on this and have a look at the page this takes you too. It has lots of so called "calls to action" buttons in big bold font and all the information that would alert you to this being a scam is in tiny, unreadable font such as white text on black background. Of course, as soon as you click on a call to action button, which many people will do straight away (after all, why would you linger on the home page if you think this is the official site) you leave the home page and there is no further reference at all on any other page that you are not on the official site.

[TacitusMouse]

I just want to paste the link that MarianneEnjolras pasted earlier www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/copycat-websites as it has details on how you can possibly try to get your moneyback and templates