Old Boggy Posted July 9 Report Share Posted July 9 Recently I went on line to check when my car tax was due. I thought that I’d signed into the Gov.uk site but unknowingly signed into a site that charges for the same free information from Gov.uk. Initially I was charged just 50p which wasn’t a big deal. However, when checking my bank online the next day I had inadvertently signed up to an ongoing site and was charged £7.95. This I was able to instantly cancel for ongoing payments, but was still £8.45 out of pocket. Had I not checked my account, which I do regularly, I would have been charged £7.95 each month. The site was headed to look like the official Gov. site, so perhaps I’m teaching to the converted here but beware folks that you are more diligent than I was and always check the precise sites that you are entering. OB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TIGHTCHOKE Posted July 9 Report Share Posted July 9 Morning Chris Yes, that is a well known tactic, copying a known, proven site and then charging for free information. Lots of them around, be more careful in future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Boggy Posted July 9 Author Report Share Posted July 9 8 minutes ago, TIGHTCHOKE said: Morning Chris Yes, that is a well known tactic, copying a known, proven site and then charging for free information. Lots of them around, be more careful in future. Thanks Dave. Taught me a lesson to be more vigilant. Fortunately not a great financial loss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDog Posted July 9 Report Share Posted July 9 I recently completed an application for the renewal of my passport. The website looked very Governmental. It wasn't. Right at the end of the process, at 'pay now', I noticed fees of £100:00 had been added to the cost of the renewal. I beat a hasty retreat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TIGHTCHOKE Posted July 9 Report Share Posted July 9 Yes indeed, there are an awful lot of these official looking scam sites operating. Gawd knows how many they catch, but if they didn't work, they would find another way to illegally take peoples hard earned cash. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Boggy Posted July 9 Author Report Share Posted July 9 3 hours ago, JDog said: I recently completed an application for the renewal of my passport. The website looked very Governmental. It wasn't. Right at the end of the process, at 'pay now', I noticed fees of £100:00 had been added to the cost of the renewal. I beat a hasty retreat. Well spotted sir. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marsh man Posted July 9 Report Share Posted July 9 Morning all ... I got my vehicle tax reminder only last week as my car tax run out at the end of this month , as far as I can remember I have always had a written reminder , can I rely on a reminder , or are reminders on the way out . MM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldypigeonpopper Posted July 9 Report Share Posted July 9 (edited) Hello, They are the modern day scourge of thieves , i try not to use online payments but a recent check on motor insurance from an online quote to a local independent the extra cost was around £400🤔 Edited July 9 by oldypigeonpopper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cosmicblue Posted July 9 Report Share Posted July 9 (edited) The internet has, since the beginning, been an unregulated anarchy. Some countries have realised that this is unacceptable and have attempted to 'ring-fence' their bit of the 'internet', in many cases it is politically driven - i.e. China. There is a bit of the 'internet, hidden from sight, where the criminal fraternity reside, not indexed by the regular search engines, known as the 'dark web': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_web Edited July 9 by Cosmicblue Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Imperfection Posted July 9 Report Share Posted July 9 I almost fell for it too. I bought a new car and needed to tax it so i Googled road tax and clicked on the first link. I sat looking at the screen and thought-that don't look right. The unfortunate thing was it was right at the top of page so i assumed it were right which it wasn't. Its not on there now so i guess Google got complaints? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
janner Posted July 16 Report Share Posted July 16 (edited) Its not strictly criminal, its the free search engines, google and duck etc set it up so that when you type in something like for instance 'mot history' the first result is a firm that pays to be at the top of the list, I get annoyed when searching for a specific item and type something like 'toolstation overalls' and the results are all screwfic, b&q etc for several pages, this is worse on the duck site than any other, its how they generate income, Edited July 16 by janner Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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