Copycat website crackdown – could you spot a fake site?

Excellent news that Richard Howard has been arrested and well done to his victims who had the guts to let him take them to court and Legal Beagles for their help and support.

Let us hope justice continues to prevail and he pays for his scamming.

Nice article with good recommendations, but let’s be honest, people sometimes is too lazy to do further checks or they do not have the needed knowledge.

Therefore I am working on a project to easily spot (just by typing a website address) any either fake or not official website.

Regards

Emilio

[Hi Emilio, we’ve had to remove your link as we promotional content isn’t allowed on Which? Conversation. You can have a read through our commenting guidelines, here. Thanks, Mods]

NFH – I can understand your scorn of the non-net savvy however governments and councils, and many other organisations are making people use the Net.

An idea I have mooted is that the Consumers’ Association should actually have a site where certified “good” links exist. This is because of aging and other incidents many people will continue or lapse into a state where they are not safe to wander the Net.

So the process would be go to Whichpedia [default search setting]
type in passports and go to a page [vertical!] that links to the offiical sites for renewals or new passports.

Usefully it could also link to practical advice that you may not get from Gov.uk sites.
And even to a more detailed Which? Travel site.

Essentially an on-line community where it is safe to roam and where to go out to! : ) And a service that many older people would find reassuring and worth paying for.

I suspect that many have been lured to use copycat sites by the promise of rapid service. It’s fairly well known that passport renewal can be slow. Having had a look at ‘British Passport Services’, mentioned in the introduction, it is very clear that it is not an official site. Presumably this has changed as a result of the publicity.

I would like to see passport sites etc. carrying a prominent notice on the homepage indicating that this is not the official site and providing a link to that site. Then users can choose whether to use the government site or the one they have arrived at.

I believe that any company offering ”add-on’s” to government services should be required to register and be regulated with a code of conduct. It isn’t so much ‘copycat’ websites now as ‘third party’ websites. This would include things like the Post Office ‘check and send’ service and potentially accountancy firms offering to file tax returns.

Sites such as BritishPassportServices say they provide ‘added value services’ – although the vast majority of people who end up using the site ONLY want to book an appointment at the HMPO – which is a completely free service by calling 0300 222 0000. The website says that they provide a pelthora of extra services which are chargeable – these include an email with a link to google maps, a multilingual translation tool (which doesn’t work), a voucher for an emergency travel document, a international driving licence (which isn’t an official document at all), telephone support (if you ever get through), posting a passport form to you ( a week too late to be any use) – and so on and so forth.

The main issue with BPS has been the incessant harassment of consumers who used their site if they refused to make the £117.60 payment. The threats of sending bailiffs, making you bankrupt, ruining your credit record – sending the police round and reporting consumers for fraud – even one person was told BPS would report them to the HMPO for using fraudulent documents to obtain a passport. Telephone calls shouting at consumers and finally ‘example’ court claim documents being sent out. All aimed to scare people into calling them and paying the £117.60 plus any number of charges added on.

We’ve around 45 customers who are defending against court claims from the company, 9 cases have so far been heard in court – and all 9 have been found in the consumers favour. However there have been 772 (up to end March 2015) case bought by BPS against customers. The huge majority of people are paying rather than deal with a court claim, or having a CCJ by default awarded against them to ruin their credit file for 6 years.

None of that would be able to happen with a registered and regulated third party website.

It seems like this Howard character would have gotten away with it if it weren’t for these meddling Beagles.

If you want an official website for a government agency look for http://www.gov.uk/ in the address.

Well done Legal Beagles – you are an immense credit to the altruistic side of humans/consumers.

** blushes ** Thank you.

Another case was won in Cheltenham County Court yesterday against BPS.

Sadly another three new victims messaged me.

Happily the BPS website is currently unavailable.

Sadly Richard Howard has another 4/5 ready to pick up the slack.

Happily the EHIC-UK.org website is closed to new business … sadly they have just whacked 2 new ones up under a new company name with a new director.

DVLA websites – hundreds of the damn things…

It’s never ending, and it NEEDS regulating else we’re just chasing our tails.

Which? are in the best position to push for regulation with gov’t.

I would love Which? [Consumers’ Associaition] to do something bold on this and your suggestions make excellent sense.

However Which? is not great on these endeavours witness the “decision” not to support AllTrials despite 582 organisations signing on – including several European consumer organisations.

Incidentally today I stumped up towards legal expenses as a drug company fights back on having to provide data on all trials – rather than solely on those trials which are helpful to the drug company. A cause and case that surely affects every consumer.

I should have posted this in here:

Increasing numbers of domains being registered to trick customers.