Are you a shyster site victim for EHICs, passports and other renewals?

A question about : Are you a shyster site victim for EHICs, passports and other renewals?

Poll started 4 Mar 2014

Search for an EHIC, driving licence, passport or similar and you risk paying a shyster site for doing nowt. These sites appear high up on Google and dress up like legitimate sites, then charge you extra for what’s normally just easy form-filling. The Government’s announced extra cash for a crackdown - we want to judge the scale of the problem.

Have you been caught out (or nearly caught out) by a shyster site and paid over the odds?

Vote in this week's poll

Did you vote? Why did you pick that option? Are you surprised at the results so far? Have your say below. To see the results from last time, click this

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Best answers:

• I got the wrong web site for Microsoft messenger and got charged Ј6 for a completely free program. Two 3 pound texts. I felt so angry it was untrue.
• The results of this poll are very distressing.
  If Government won't/cant tackle this then we need to get people to wise up. Maths education and money management are becoming increasingly important by the day.
• My husband naively paid one of these shyster sites to complete the application form for my son's passport.
  What I don't understand is why the government departments aren't all over them like a rash.
  They claim (in the small print) to provide a checking service but the form was not completed correctly and I have had to get another to complete from the post office. If they are not actually providing the service is that not fraud? Surely they are breaking trading standards?
  Having sent personal details to a shyster company isn't there a good chance that they are not protecting these details properly? So where are the data protection officers?
  Why isn't the gov.uk site at the top of every google or other search engine search results when searching for UK government services. This would prevent Joe Public going to the majority of these shyster sites.
  Why are the credit card companies complicit in helping these firms con money out of people?
• We were driving to Germany. Many cities require a parking permit. Many sites wanted 20 Euro for a 6 Euro permit. The Berlin city site has a section in English, and the permit at cost.
• I got caught out trying to unlock my dad's upgrade handset he didn't use. EE wanted the phone to be active for 6 months before they'd unlock it for Ј20, and I was on Vodafone network in a 12 month contract.
  officialiphoneunlock[dot]co[dot]uk advertised an iphone 5 unlock 'preorder' for Ј20, they didn't make it clear what the final cost would be or when this would become available. a few weeks later they emailed to say they could now do the unlocks but the final fee was Ј49.99.
  I stupidly paid the extra Ј30 hoping that it was genuine after all, but a few days later they said due to high demand they hadn't got through all of the preorders so I could upgrade for anouth Ј40 to the 'premium' same day service or wait. I chose to wait and they informed me my handset was blocked and unable to be unlocked. It wasn't. I checked with EE to confirm and went back to them with the information. They then offered me an upgrade for a further fee or a refund. I asked for the refund in January but still nothing... so ashamed for putting my trust in them and being taken for a ride. so many other people must be in a similar situation.
• Googled passport renewal. Site came up called 'passport direct' (already misleading). Hit button for 'passport renewal', completed form and paid Ј69. As soon as message came up at end, realised my mistake. No legal cooling off period so unable to cancel. Even a short cooling off period (say 24 hours) for services would help. Surely, no-one would actually use these sites if they realised what they were. Failing all else, shouldn't Trading Standards be able to regulate a maximum price for what they do? Post Office do checking for Ј8.75.
• i work at the post office and see this especially passports an awful lot,please go through direct.gov.uk,this site has links to all the goverment websites that you can get passports etc from.we all do it,we google what we are looking for and tend to go for the top result first,i was given the advice never to do this and thankfully have not been caught out by these terrible sites,go into the post office we can normally point people in the right direction.
• The poll proves that 30% of people who responded either do not read the information presented to them or were incapable of assimilating that information.
• I nearly got caught out when applying for a tax rebate for my son - I only DIDN'T fall for it as I was suspicious when the paperwork required me to sign to agree for the rebate to be paid into the companies bank account - it was that that made me stop and search further and after much delving worked out they had sent me the forms - I would complete them - they would post them to HMRC and then receive the payment on my behalf - take their cut and then forward me a cheque for the remainder.
  I complete self assessment tax forms for myself and my husband every year and still nearly fell for it - the site was VERY convincing and used all the correct Government logos, etc.
  Also husband is a driving instructor and we have had several pupils caught out by the services booking both the theory and practical tests. Luckily they have all managed to get their monies back and book through the correct site.
• My son got caught applying for a new driving licence. He paid Ј90, Ј50 for the licence and Ј40 for the service! they have DVLA in their title so he thought they were the DVLA. He tried to contact them as he realised he had made a mistake on the submission- but no reply whatsoever. Thats when I took a look and realised he had been scammed. They do say they are a 3rd party agent but he missed it...hard lesson learnt.
  They may be acting just within the law but they are definitely not an ethical company or they wouldnt be hiding behind 1 method of contact. Using a third party is fine if they actually do check your application and follow it through and these guys definitely are not.
  Biggest problem is where to report them. I tried to get in touch with Trading Standards but I just ended up with advice from Citizens Advice Bureau which unfortunately was a waste of time.
  Who can take it further....
  It is saddening to think that the government agencies accept applications from these dodgy agents, they should only accept from nominated agencies (ie Post Office for their check and send service for passports who are honest and transparent about what they do) and individuals.
  I will be very interested if anyone can suggest how and where to report these companies....
• If you google Land Registry there are these fakers sites that want to charge loads of money for a service the actual official Land Registry provide for Ј4.
• My partner got caught out with his fishing licence form. He should have gone to Environment Agency but instead went to https://www.rodlicence.net/ The licence should have been Ј27, he paid Ј20 ontop of this. I was not happy, but the money came out of his birthday money so didn't affect anything but him.
• I booked my missus's (practical) driving test through one of these sites around 3 years ago. The mark-up in price wasn't massive (about 20%-ish) but I was furious that I'd been had. Thankfully when the time came, she passed first time so lightning didn't have chance to strike twice!
• the health & safety test you need to do to get a CSCS card, for work within the construction industry https://www.cscs.uk.com/cscs-cards/he...nd-safety-test, should normally cost Ј17.50, but other sites charge more than double just to book you on.
• I got caught out applying for 2 x visas for Sri Lanka last year - instead of $30(Ј24.90) each we paid $55(Ј45.44) from a site called Estaplus. I tried to cancel it when I realised what I had done but to no avail. I hope I won't make that mistake again!!!
• I was searching for DVLA to get a refund of Vehicle Tax after taking my car to the scrapyard, and I ended up on v5c.org.uk whose website looks very genuine but they charge for a service that DVLA do for free (if you can find the right page).
• I got caught out when I needed a copy of my divorce certificate - paid Ј23.50 to a website who never responded and didn't send the certificate - subsequently got one from the local Register for about a third of the price...at least it made me more vigilant but was an expensive lesson!!