Dartford Crossing: drivers warned over scam websites that lead to fines | Scams
toYou’ve had a long journey in the car but thankfully when you get home you don’t forget that you have to pay the Dart Toll, which is the fee to cross the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, part of the busy Dartford Crossing over the Thames connecting Essex and Kent. Once you call the website, you pay quickly from your phone.
But a few weeks later a penalty notice (PCN) arrives and you realize you’ve been duped. The site you thought you paid the £3.50 toll on was a scam and the money went to the criminals, leaving you with a £70 fine.
National Trading Standards, England and Wales’ consumer protection and enforcement body, has warned that thousands of people are being scammed on fake government services sites, advising motorists to make sure they pay tolls and charges through the correct websites.
As well as Dartford Crossing, there are other fake sites claiming to receive payments for London’s ultra-low emissions zone (Ulez) and the Mersey Gateway Bridge, among other services.
Often offending sites have names that are easy to confuse with their real names; for example paydartcharge.co.uk or paylondoncharge.co.uk. Some will pick up the real fee after tricking the victim into extra charges that can be multiples of the actual cost.
In October, two men who ran more than 40 copycat sites that took more than £2.25 million from unsuspecting consumers were sentenced at Bristol crown court. Thomas Galland Shezad Parvez charged thousands of victims inflated prices for a range of services.
On one site they charged an extra £5 on top of the legitimate fee for the Dartford Pass. In others, people were being charged for essentially free services, such as £19.99 to send legal off-road notices (Sorn).
Mike Andrews, head of the National Trading Standards e-crime team, says victims often realize they have been duped when a fine arrives through the door.
“Our research makes clear that too many people pay more than they need for simple services,” he says. “We would ask motorists to take a moment to check if they are on the official website when paying a toll or emissions charge. The easiest way is to go to the toll page on Gov.uk and search from there.”
What does fraud look like
The scam sites created by the two convicts used sponsored links and words associated with false legitimacy in their titles to push them to the top of search results.
Fake Dartford Crossing sites included dartcrossingcharges.co.uk and dartfordcrossingonline.co.uk, while Mersey Gateway fake sites were paymerseygatewaytoll.co.uk and paymerseytoll.co.uk.
What should we do
If you realize you paid through a fraudulent site, first try to get a refund through a chargeback from your bank or credit card provider.
Then report the misleading website to Citizens Advice consumer services on 0808 223 1133. Try to take screenshots of the site and payment confirmations. These will be useful in case the site is shut down at a later stage.
Instead of using a search engine when paying for government services in the future, start with Gov.uk.
