Warning - renewing driving licence over 70 years old

When a friend of mine's mother died in her late eighties she discovered that her mother hadn't renewed her licence for the last 15 years!

Scam! Always go onto Govt. Website

I'm 70 in January, still got the paper licence, so should I have had a letter by now about renewing ?

this was on one of the scam programmes on tv over a year ago. It was an actress or newsreader who had been scammed and was letting people know about it.

I had a parking penalty notice.text on my mobile. I was driving my husbands car. We drove into a car park on the day stated. We didn't stop or take a ticket from the machine. I was puzzled as to why the text came to my phone when it referred to husband's car. The originating source was the parent company of the telecom 3. (checked on Who called me) The text showed a web site Dvla. not DVLA,org.uk. The local authority in charge of the car park said they had several queries even one from a person who didn't have a car. I would never have considered the text if by coincidence I hadn't entered a car park on that day .
Check everything in emails or texts from people or organisations you don't normally deal with

It's not just dvla. Friends of ours applied for an ESTA (like a visa) for entry into the USA and paid well over the odds, because they'd stumbled onto a website that applied for them and charged an enormous fee.

At the time the ESTA was only about £12 and they paid well over £70.

The dodgy spam ads tend to come up first in a google search. Scroll down to gov.uk site. Know someone who got caught on a passport renewal site scam. Easily done.

I aĺso got caught up in the DVLA scam website when renewing my licence. I thought I was logged into the gov.uk website but it was picked up by a scam outfit and I was charged about £90 which I couldn't recover from my bank. The new licence arrived a few days later, but always check the email address you're applying to.

This happens quite often. The scammers have either paid Google or your search engine to appear at the top of the list when you search or have put in an extra letter so that it comes up first before the actual website … so beware that you have the correct one each time!

The same thing happens with insurance companies. If you breakdown the natural reaction these days is to google the company you are with to report the accident/breakdown. What a lot of people do not know is that the bona fide insurance company is not top of the list. The scammers are in prime position and although they will not actually confirm they are your insurance company they will give a strong impression that is the case. The stressed driver just wants help so doesn't ask too many pertinent questions. The scammers helpfully arrange a temporary car which you think is covered on your insurance. It isn't until you receive a bill in the thousands of pounds and contact your insurer that you realise you have been scammed. Rip-Off Britain had a programme on this. Their advice is to add your insurance company's phone number into your contacts.

We have to err on the side of caution with everything we do these days, don't we? Each call we receive (and make), each form we complete, how we pay for parking, who we make friends with online, how we pay for things etc. The list goes on. I wouldn't be without my mobile, iPad. computer etc but they do leave us open to those scammers who come up with such devious ways to get our money. It's best to be suspicious of everything/everyone first. Shame, but true I think.

There’s a similar scam for the congestion and ulez charge from TFL . Make sure you have the right website when paying these charges . Ditto the Dartford crossing charge .

I am surprised that a scam hasn't already happened regarding Premium Bond wins. It would be so easy for a phone scammer to tell you you had won £1 million and please supply the bank details you want the winnings paid in to or somesuch supply of information.

Sadly I inadvertantly logged on to a site like this and only realised when they wanted 75 pounds for renewing.
I exited the site but what concerns me now is the fact that I entered all my details, passport number, insurance etc. and could not delete them from the site.
As I was worried about this I rung Action Fraud and was advised to regularly check my credit score which I am now doing .

I renewed mine recently online - I entered the web address given on the DVLA letter.
New licence arrived within a week. 🙂

I was unable to renew mine online as it required a new photo and ID. My passport has run out so it wouldn’t accept verification via my old passport. I had to send two other forms of ID. I opted for tracking both ways as I didn’t want my birth certificate getting lost, so it cost a but but all docs were returned a week later.

I had the same when I was renewing my passport 3 years ago. As soon as it got to the processing payment page I realised. The only problem was they then had loads of my personal data which I worried about for some time. I haven’t had any subsequent problems though.

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Whenever renewing any government document of any kind, driving licence, passport etc etc make sure you are directly on a .gov site.

This scam has been around for years, you just need to be eagle eyed.

Hello Twinnytwin. I have just read of your experience when renewing your Driving licence. The same thing has just happened to me. The company is called StreamlinedAssistance. co.uk and I didn't realise it until after I had filled in all my important personal details and then pressed submit only to be asked for a payment of £78! I didn't pay but now have received several emails asking me to complete the application. I am really worried that this company now has very important information about me including NI number etc. I am worried about identity theft now. They got my email address from the form so they must have all the other details too.
As it is a while since you had dealings with this company can I ask if you have had any problems since. Thanks x

Good reminder thanks. When I applied for GHIC, I nearly got caught. As with EHIC before, it is free from Gov Web sites.

Wasn’t it Angela Rippon who brought the DVLA scam to light years ago - I believe she actually was scammed?

I’ll be 70 soon and have just renewed mine.

The paper form D46P arrived with a clear note that you can apply at www.gov.uk/renew-driving-licence-at-70

The form makes very clear in bold capitals that no fee is required.

If you go to that web page, the process is very simple.

If you have a passport, you don’t even have to submit a photo as the system retrieves and uses your passport photo.

The whole process took about five minutes. I applied last Wednesday and the new licence arrived on Monday.

It is only valid for three years (until the day before my 73rd birthday) not the ten as stated in this old opening post.

springishere

The same is true when applying for a US ESTA visa. You do have to pay for this, so it's easy to be scammed. I filled in all the details until asked for about $78 fee, when I became suspicious. The true fee was $14 when I last applied, so you have to be careful that you are on the real US Embassy website.

Or indeed any other Visa, take care that you find the correct website

I know I have to renew my driving every 3 years once over 70 but how long before my 73 b-day can I complete the application?