British Passport Services scam

A question about : British Passport Services scam

Hi,

I was looking at getting my daughter a passport and noticed on the governments website you can do it with a fast track 1- week. I typed in fast track 1- week into Google and came across a site called 'ukpassportoffices.co.uk'- bare in mind I know very little about passport stuff, having only used mine once on 30 years. I filled in a form on the Sunday night at 9.00pm. I then received an email to say they would contact me for payment in the morning. I got a call at 9.00am and they said I need to pay Ј117, I did not realise it would cost that much, and said to the lady on the phone I would like to cancel straight away- I thought this would be ok because no work could have possibly been done through the night. The lady on the phone said 'ok I will send you a cancellation email'. I did not receive a cancellation email but an email 1hour 30mins later stating my appointment with the passport office had been booked. This company went ahead and booked my appointment hours after I said I would like it cancelled. On the email it stated I could cancel the appointment over phone and type in my order number. I then received an email stating all the work had been carried out and I owe then Ј117. They have also sent me a letter demanding the money or further action will be taken. There is basically no way of cancelling your order with these people even if it's impossible for them to have done any work
Thanks

Best answers:

• https://www.gov.uk/get-a-passport-urgently
  Just re-read the site you posted, I thought they were including the passport fee, they arent!!
  definitely a scam site. but not sure what you can do as fees are mentioned on the site
• Hi Glen.
  The Ј117 is their fee for phoning the passport office up. The Ј89 for the passport is on top of that, which the government charge me. This why I cancelled straight away
• The main problem I have is they started the work after I said I would not pay the fee
• have they already charged your card or how does it work?
• I just went through an application and at the end they ask for card details, so if they havent got yours then you havent fully completed an appplication and they can run and jump
• Passports, tax disc renewal and others will have a .gov in the website link, dont use any other site.
• I really dont know why these sites are not closed down for what I think is called "passing off" If I opened a site called Coke a Cola as opposed to (Coca Cola) and sold a drink in a red can I would be sued to hell, why are our government so toothless?
• They provide a service, whether its arraigning appointments or checking submissions
  Yes its a money making scam, but its not illegal.
• hPuseless, where are you?