A campaign by The Mail on Sunday to prevent people falling victim to unofficial websites charging extra fees to provide driving licences, passports and the European Health Insurance Card has yielded yet more success.

Last week, the Advertising Standards Authority banned three so-called ‘copycat’ websites from promoting their services in their current form. The sites concerned are europeanhealthcard.org.uk, uk-officialservices.co.uk and ukpassportoffices.co.uk. It brings to five the number of rulings made by the authority against copycats this year. The banning orders were made because the authority believes all three sites hoodwinked users into thinking they were applying for a Government service through an official site. The extra charges they applied, the authority says, were not spelt out in black and white. Guy Parker, chief executive of the authority, told The Mail on Sunday: ‘Websites that mislead people into paying a premium for a service that they can get for free or for much less from gov.uk are simply unfair. ‘These three rulings set a clear line in the sand and signal the start of sector-wide enforcement action in this area. Any copycat website unwilling or unable to be upfront and clear about the nature of their service will face sanctions.’.....Read more here

AAD Forum previous Blogs:
copycat website that enticed thousands of taxpayers - LINK
Five arrests over 'hoax' UK government websites - LINK
Copycat website taxreturngateway hijacks - LINK