ADVERTISING watchdogs have warned people to be on their guard when filling in official forms online following a sharp rise in the number of copycat websites that mimic those from agencies such as the Passport Office and the land Registry.
A Scottish council has joined numerous people to complain about the websites to the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA), which has launched a crackdown.
The web pages appear to offer services such as passport or driving licence renewal, but are actually offering to check documents for errors for a fee before sending them on to the proper authority.
Those taken in by the sites end up paying twice, with the sites charging between £60 to £75 for just making sure documents are ready to be processed.
Last month a complaint by Trading Standards bosses at South Lanarkshire Council was looked into and upheld by the ASA over the website driverlicensing.org, which has been taken offline.
South Lanarkshire Divisional Trading Standards Officer David Templeton said that people were being tricked.
He said: "The companies operating these are charging a fee for their services, often on top of the agency's own price, when you can easily do the same thing for yourself for nothing.
"South Lanarkshire Consumer and Trading Standards, in common with colleagues across the UK, have noted that this is a scam which has picked up pace, and can be a lucrative one for those behind the websites, many of which operate outwith the United Kingdom."
Charles Duncan, 70, of Glasgow, said he was fooled by the website Passport-uk when he went to get his passport renewed.
The site is one of the first to appear when a search for renewing passports is conducted online.
He said: "I'm not a novice to the internet but this fooled me completely, and it's just a scam.
"I was charged £69 when I went to renew my wife's passport for something I could easily have done myself."
The ASA also took action against britishpassport.org.uk, which "misleadingly" implied it offered official passport renewals, and landregistryonline.net, which appeared to be the official site of the land registry.
Britishpassport.org.uk has been taken down, while the land registry copycat has been changed to make it clear it is not official, but there are many more sites operating which have yet to be investigated.
A spokeswoman for the ASA said: "It's not acceptable for companies to mislead people into thinking they're an official service.
"We encourage anyone that is unsure about claims a company is making to lodge a complaint with us so we can look into it"
A spokesperson for Her Majesty's Passport Office added: "It's totally unacceptable that unscrupulous companies are tricking people into paying for information which is available free of charge by Her Majesty's Passport Office.
"We are taking action with the Advertising Standards Authority to ensure these sites make it clear to customers that they have no connection with HM Passport Office."
In response to one customer's complaint, passport-uk.co.uk said: "It is clearly stated on our website that this is a chargeable service and we also make it clear that the Her Majesty's Passport Office provide a less comprehensive service free of charge.
"We provide a direct link to them and the service they provide. It is also clearly laid out that we are in no way affiliated with Her Majesty's Passport Office."
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