Google: what we’ve done to crackdown on copycat websites

Thanks for these very positive comments, Theo.

Google has been experimenting with yellow ‘Ad’ labels that make advertising links very clear. Please could we have these a permanent feature.

I believe that copycat websites should on their homepage be required to make it clear that (1) they are not the official site, and (2) give an honest statement of what significant benefits their service offers.

Very commendable. But the question I’m left with is this – : How do these misleading ads get to appear on Google in the first place? And why is it necessary to allow the promotion of added value services at all?

Anyone who advertises with Google Adwords knows that potential adverts have to be approved before they appear. And that ads only appear in response to selected keywords in the search string. So why were these ads approved? And why are keywords for official government documents like “passport”, “visa” and “license” permitted? Wouldn’t it me much simpler to prevent the use of these keywords, rather than police the ads?

Secondly, the advertiser sets a budget. Once the ads have been displayed or clicked on sufficient times to exhaust the budgeted amount, the ads cease to appear until the advertising budget is refreshed.

So there is little justification to allow advertising of sites that provide “additional value” services, since only a subset of Google search engine users will be made aware of them. The intention of these ads is simply to divert users away from the free services available to all, until the advertiser has creamed off their quota for the day. Whether they can justify their additional fees or not seems irrelevant to me.

Although if you search for EHIC, the top 2 are hard to detect ads, ahead of the official none GOV.UK site.

The Govt really should add a www dot NHS dot GOV dot UK , it wouldn’t take a couple of minutes to do and they can just route it to the NHS.UK site.

I frequently use copycat when researching limited companies. They are to be avoided if ordering documents as the mark-up on Companies House charges can be significant, The online information is often better presented than on the official site

It might be useful to have comparison website reveiw official and copycat sites so that we can use them on a horses-for-courses basis.

Education I think is a must, as reading the comments on

https://conversation.which.co.uk/money/copycat-websites-tax-returns-passport-driving-licence-application/

it would appear many have a very very limited knowledge of the internet, and as we all know a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing.

Things to cover in no particular order are:

1) Check the search results for ads, and be aware that even scammers can have ads, and they’re more likely to pay for ads than a government department.

2) The order of the web results shouldn’t be taken as top is best, always scan down the list.

3) Not all government sites end in .GOV.UK (e.g the nhs.uk )

4) Star ratings can be duped, so take them with a pinch of salt. It just rakes 5 lines of html on a webpage to get star ratings on a search result.

5) https just means that communication between your browser/smart phone/tablet etc and the website your connecting to is secure. It doesn’t imply that site is legit.

6) Take time to read all the small print.

7) Is a scamming website likely to name itself as such? No. Names of websites are chosen to draw in people, they cost next to nothing a year, The name is no guarantee of anything.
royalfamily dot co uk is actually owned Associated Newspapers Limited and not HRH Queen Elizabeth.

8) Its not just government sites that can be copycat, any site that offers a paid service can have a copycat site. And as the govt copycats are shut down the none govt ones are more likely to flourish.

9) Check the spelling of the website, its easy to replace an l with a 1, an O with an 0 and same scam sites use that fact to dupe you into thinking you’ve gone to the right site.

I’m sure there are other things I could add too, but I guess those are the obvious ones.

I lost money to taxreturngateway earlier this year. I’ve been refused a refund several times by Who4 (the company that runs many of these sites). My local MP Caroline Lucas and Jeff Prestridge at This Is Money are both backing my campaign to shut the websites down and find compensation for the customers who were duped into using the sites.

If you agree that these companies should be forced to stop operating please sign this petition http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/61886

It’s worth noting that several of these sites have changed drastically in appearance since the started being featured in the media. When I used the fake tax site the information about it not being official was hidden at the bottom of the home page.

Would any of you be willing to sign this petition to ban or regulate Non Official Check & Send services.

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/60484

I have contacted CAB (who have already replied and will be circulating this across UK network), OFT, Money Saving Expert, Post Office, HMPO, DVLA and Watchdog for support

If you feel like signing maybe you would know others (family, friends, etc.) that would sign also, we need to make a stand against this sort of behaviour.

My wife, an Eastern European, was duped into using ‘Passport-uk.co.uk, for issue of a new passport and had paid £69 for that, thinking it was the Passport Office themselves. She gave ALL her personal info. required for a passport, bank A/c etc. and paid with MY Visa card. I wanted to let her do all the ‘form filling’, so she gets to know the ropes involved without my help. She completed the payment and I looked at all she did myself, after she finished, not to give her the impression I did not trust her. To my horror I saw the trap she fell in and I wrote 2 emails to Passport-uk.co.uk to cancel the application, although they stipulate that, because the application is for ‘immediate processing’ the right to the cooling off period for refund is lost. They gave a tel. No., which I rang to receive a voice box saying I should email them for any amendments.
I realised, now, the scam was complete! I googled to find out anything on them and found a site, where people who had the same experience as my wife, were writing their comments. There were, at that time, 1703 disgruntled people with this site, who lost various amounts of money.
I reported the incident to the Passport Office and to Which? where, of course, I found out this scam site is well known to them.
However, I did not rest on my laurels. I waited for 2/3 wks. for any forms to arrive from Passport-uk.co.uk but nothing did come. I waited further and eventually wrote to my Card issuer asking them to investigate and refund my money. 4/5 wks. after that my bank A/c WAS CREDITED with the amount I paid (£69) to Passport-uk.co.uk. My defence? I never received the goods(application forms) promised by the recipients of the payment. However, despite, at least, getting the money back, my wife is dead worried about all the information this scammer is holding on her.
Thank you Which? for taking these scammers on, on our behalf.

Some progress … http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/consumertips/10765909/Google-bans-copycat-websites.html

And I’ve even reported one ad, wonder how many more I can find …

I was caught out by one of these and was so annoyed and amazed.
My research showed how common this is and I decided to do something about it. I contacted the House of Commons to get approval for a Gov’t. Petition and thought the 100k signatures would be a challenge but with some exposure would be possible.

I contacted senior people at OFT, CAB, DVLA, Passport Office, Royal Mail, Which, MSE, Watchdog and local media. I had one response – the Head of Policy at CAB that agreed to circulate around UK network but I didn’t see the expected surge in signatures. I contacted them again to check when they would circulate it but they didn’t reply and I have contacted all the other places again with no response.

I wonder why this has been so hard? I wonder why these places are not interested in doing more about this growing issue.

Would any of you be willing to sign this petition to ban or regulate Non Official Check & Send services.

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/60484

If you feel like signing maybe you would know others (family, friends, etc.) that would sign also, we need to make a stand against this sort of behaviour.

Just been caught by Australian Visitors Visa Sights.