You have had a long car journey but, thankfully, remember after you get home that you have to pay the Dart Charge, the toll for driving over the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, part of the busy Dartford Crossing over the Thames linking Essex and Kent. You quickly pay on your phone after searching for the website.
A few weeks later, however, a penalty charge notice (PCN) arrives and you realise you have been duped. The site you thought you had paid the £3.50 toll through was a fraud and the money went to criminals, while you are left with a £70 fine.
National Trading Standards, the consumer protection and enforcement body for England and Wales, has advised motorists to ensure they are paying tolls and charges through the right websites, warning thousands have been scammed on fake government services sites.
As well as the Dartford Crossing, there are other faked sites claiming to take payment for London’s ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) and the Mersey Gateway Bridge among other services.
Often the offending sites have names that are easy to confuse with the real thing – paydartcharge.co.uk or paylondoncharge.co.uk for example. Some will pass on the real charge after fleecing the victim for extra charges that come to multiples of the actual cost.
In October, two men who operated more that 40 copycat sites that took more than £2.25m 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 for the Dartford Crossing, on top of the legitimate fee. On others, people were charged for services that are actually free, such as £19.99 to submit a statutory off road notification (Sorn).
Mike Andrews, the head of the National Trading Standards e-crime team, says victims often only realise they have been duped once a fine arrives through the door.
“It’s clear from our research that huge numbers of people are paying more than they need to for straightforward services,” he says. “We’re urging motorists to take a moment to check they’re on the official website when paying tolls or emission charges. The easiest way is to go to the road toll page at Gov.uk and search from there.”
What the scam looks like
The fraudulent sites created by the two convicted men, used sponsored links to push them to the top of search results and had associated words in their titles to fake legitimacy.
Fake Dartford Crossing sites included dartcrossingcharges.co.uk and dartfordcrossingonline.co.uk while Mersey Gateway fakes were paymerseygatewaytoll.co.uk and paymerseytoll.co.uk.
What to do
If you realise you have paid through a scam site, first try to get a refund through chargeback from your debit or credit card provider.
Then report the misleading website to Citizens Advice consumer service on 0808 223 1133. Try to take screenshots of the site and any payment confirmations. These will be useful if the site is taken down at a later stage.
In future, start at Gov.uk when looking to pay for government services, rather than by using a search engine.
