Who are https://www.ukdrivinghelp.co.uk/?

[Snoop Puss]

Hi guys, asking for some help here. My mum has got a letter telling her to renew her car tax, so she says. Then she reads me the letter and it's asking her for 69.99 pounds to renew her driving licence. She thinks she's already done this with DVLA. In fact, she did it just last week.

She says the driving licence renewal form has been filled in by hand and has been sent to her with a stamped addressed envelope on which the address has been written by hand.

This all strikes me as very odd. I've looked them up on the web and as far as I can see it's an organisation that simply gets cash off people for supposedly checking applications.

Does anyone know anything about them and how did they get my mum's details?

[bikermike]

sounds like Fraudsters to me.

I'd tell her to ignore, or post to DVLA and report them.

As to where they have got it from, some of it will be available from the DVLA

[veggiechicken]

https://conversation.which.co.uk/mon...pycat-website/

Read down the comments. Tell you Mum to ignore it - its a scam.

[4Shoes]

Reading between the lines the company contacts drivers coming up to their 70th Birthday to help renew their driving license for £69.99 and everyone needs to know that the can do it for free directly with DVLA.

DVLA send out a notice 90 days before the birthday and these people are freeloading on that process.

[Snoop Puss]

Thanks, guys. The giveaway for me was the fact that the form and envelope had been completed by hand. Even she thought it was odd, though she was prepared to go ahead with it as it all looked official. Just as well we gasbag about anything and everything that has happened during her day, otherwise she might not have mentioned it.

[Jay-ell]

I'd report it to the Trading Standards as, although they are offering a service which is legal, the way they seems to be offering it sounds dubious.

[Snoop Puss]

^Definitely preying on the elderly, that's for sure.

[Snoop Puss]

Things are not quite as my mum initially suggested. Turns out she filled in their online form and paid them online using a debit card. She has confirmed this is the case. They're claiming that in response to her online application, they filled in the official form and sent it to her and hence they have incurred their costs, so no refund payable. A total rip-off but within the law.

I will report them to Trading Standards on principle, but I don't think she'll get anything back.

[bario1]

I don't get it - you fill in the form on their website, the same form that you could pick up from the post office, and they copy your details onto a paper form and send it to you to sign and post? And that costs £70?

[veggiechicken]

Makes me so mad that these impostors can rip off people, especially the elderly, who may not have family support.

On a related matter

https://gds.blog.gov.uk/2014/03/02/r...earch-engines/

[SlugLobber]

There's a similar one for the EHIC card, so watch out for that. Not that they'll be worth anything, soon...

[Snoop Puss]

Yes, Bario, that's exactly how it works. Worse still, in my mum's case, she got sent a form by DVLA but it arrived after the ukdrivinghelp form. She's got used to paying things like road tax and the like online, so she just thought it was what she had to do. It wasn't till she got the form filled in by hand that she thought it looked odd.

Yesterday, she got one of those scam calls about problems with her phone line and would she put her computer on so they could check. After the ukdrivinghelp thing, she was alert to possible frauds and told them to call back when I'm there. Then she called her phone operator to confirm it was a scam.

These are the first times these things have happened to her. They've made her feel vulnerable and unable to cope. Very sad.

[bario1]

The DVLA should send an email to everyone 6 months before their 70th birthday telling them exactly what they need to do and when - and stress that it is FREE.

I find this sort of opportunist legal scamming disgusting - how can anyone work there knowing that they're fleecing the vulnerable?

Unfortunately, it's a sad truth that everything has to be questioned nowadays. Young people take it in their stride, but for the older generation it must be terrifying.

[veggiechicken]

They should be shut down, horrible people.

Snoop, I have those "BT" calls every day - I've just put the phone down on another one.
If your Mum is with BT, this may help BT Call Protect: Free service to crackdown on nuisance calls - BT
She may already have it, without realising.
Its free and I use it regularly to block calls.