Member Article

Wise up to the web: avoid being conned by deceptive websites

An investigation by the National Trading Standards eCrime Team (NTSeCT), which is hosted by North Yorkshire County Council, has, for the first time, resulted in the arrest of five people at addresses around the country, in connection with ‘copycat’ websites.

The team has also helped to shut down more than 25 of the scam websites.

More than 5,000 complaints were made to Citizens Advice last year and 700 were made to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) over the sites.

They imitate official government sites and included passport renewal, driving test booking, car tax discs, and HMRC notices, and were convincing enough to make people pay for services which would ordinarily be cheaper or completely free through official channels.

Ordering new passports, booking driving tests and renewing car tax discs are just some of the ways that people are unwittingly being left out-of-pocket by shrewd fraudsters who operate ‘copycat’ websites.

By imitating official government services online, copycat websites are designed to trick you into parting with your cash unnecessarily by charging users for services that are provided cheaper or free-of-charge through official government channels.

The National eCrime team is now issuing advice for consumers to beat the cyber con-artists, including a video guide and an infographic.

“People must be on their guard against unofficial websites,” County Councillor Chris Metcalfe, North Yorkshire’s Executive Member for Trading Standards. “The defrauding of people in this way through misleading websites has become a growing problem.

“We are very grateful to the eCrime team for their hard work in bringing to book fraudsters working in this field. However, the general public must continue to be vigilant.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by National Trading Standards eCrime Team .