Passport: the scam is still ongoing!
silversox
Posts: 5,204 Forum Member
✭
I decided back in January that I ought to renew my passport as it was due to run out in the February, so I duly went on line, filled in the form, paid the money and waited. The completed and typed up form arrived back, as expected, BUT the passport office required a payment as well. It was then that I realised that I'd been HAD. Passport UK is one of those scams that have been fleecing many an innocent party when charging them to simply print off their application form. In my case I paid something like £65 for their privilege. Paying that £65 is NOT the fee for a new passport. In the end I had to pay the usual fee on top on the first one just to get my new one
It arrived just as the news broke that there was a vast backlog of applications so I was relieved and had to accept the fact that I had been scammed and made a mental note to check out such websites more thoroughly. Two days after my new passport arrived, I have received my old one with the corner cut off to make it void. Now, how many members of staff at the passport office are being employed to cut off corners and insert them into envelopes with the recipients address label attached? How much is it costing this office to return said old passports? It is necessary?
Avoid these at all costs! https://www.passports-uk.co.uk/
:o
It arrived just as the news broke that there was a vast backlog of applications so I was relieved and had to accept the fact that I had been scammed and made a mental note to check out such websites more thoroughly. Two days after my new passport arrived, I have received my old one with the corner cut off to make it void. Now, how many members of staff at the passport office are being employed to cut off corners and insert them into envelopes with the recipients address label attached? How much is it costing this office to return said old passports? It is necessary?
Avoid these at all costs! https://www.passports-uk.co.uk/
:o 0
Comments
Bit like those 'Deed Poll Change of Name' companies that charge you for something that you can do free by going to the government site
Playing on people's ignorance basically.........
Seriously, changing your name is free?
More fool you for not doing a through internet search and approaching the Governments own website. Or you could have gone to your local post office which has the whole passport check and send thing.
well........in a basic sense it is free because there is no compulsory registration anywhere and in English law your name is simply 'what you call yourself'
So you can just start calling yourself something else and that becomes your name perfectly legally providing you're not doing it for the purpose of committing fraud
There is a difficulty with the hundred and one things that have your old name, eg utilities, driving licence, passport, local council, bank etc etc etc......and if you're going to inform all of them about your new name it's handy to have a document you can send them. Some will insist on having documentary proof of your change of name.
That is what a deed poll is...........it doesn't 'cause' your change of name, it's merely documentary evidence that you have done it
You don't need to pay a company to draw up a deed poll and any suggesting that they are registering it is poppycock
Thanks, rbdcay. Yes, I know I was a fool, I posted this so that other "fools" don't get taken in by it. When you get old you may find life will become complicated and you may become a "fool", too.:D
Not really a scam is it...you got the service you paid for.
I'm honestly shocked that anyone would use it. It's not a scam, they are really quite honest about what they are.
It's not a question of being 'taken in' though, is it? As it is not a scam. They clearly state who they are, what service they provide and how much it costs.
There is even a government website.
https://www.gov.uk/change-name-deed-poll
Ah, well fair play to you for accepting that and being courteous about it.
Most people on here would just start an argument...
To be fair, the website does look like a Government website; the whole intention is to fool people so they do make it look official.
One slight point I don't like, that's the use of the "Additional" for the only fee you actually need to pay:
I do wonder what they did/do with her personal information and whether they sell that on to someone else cos I assume there's enough personal details (and photographs?) provided to create a new or clone an identity.