COPYCAT WEBSITE SCAMS

1. COPYCAT WEBSITE SCAMS: ALL CATS DON’T HAVE TO BE GREY IN THEDARK Copycat websites offer processing services that are given much more affordable or cost- free thru official government websites. Moreover, they charge a considerable premium for proffering those services. For instance, scouting around the internet to apply for a passport, changing the driver’s license address, booking a driver theory test, calling up business websites proffering verification, reviewing, and forwarding fee applications. Such businesses’ advertisements may actually be conspicuous in search results. Thus, Copycat Website Scams are a real threat, especially in the impending Post-Pandemic Age as well. As the economy limps back to normal, it will still have scammers biting its tail – simply because of the enhanced virtual existence that will keep supplying easy prey to savvypredators.

2. Copycat Website Scams- deliberately hazywebsites While it is undoubtedly legit to proffer reviewing and forwarding services, business websites ought to come clean as to their non-affiliation with the Government. Besides giving a clear indication that the same services these are offering can be had from governmental agencies for free/at affordable cost. If these businesses have grounds to believetheyareactuallygivingclientsbettervalue,theoryoughttoilluminatesuchpoints in no uncertain terms. No beatings about the bush – but a clear enunciation from providers why their reviewing/forwarding services are more purposeful, and outcome- orientated, than that obtained via gov.ukchannels. Sadly, frequently just such forthrightness is not forthcoming from these adept entrepreneurs. Instead, they permit a haziness to remain between their services and website, vis-a-vis official advice via official channels. Apparently these Wild West copycat website businesses think that misleading and unfair practices are not prohibited per the CPRs or the consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, administered thru criminal and civilcourts. Copycat Website Scams – we should know better in this ‘secondwave’ Only a few years back, copycat website scams had posed serious challenges, with clients griping that many websites were mimicking official sites to bilk them of money, paying inessential amounts for vastly overrated services. Frequently, clients, post search, were deluded into thinking they were actually on a governmental site till they were tellingly asked to cough up a not inconsiderable processingfee. Afteralullof3-4years,copycatwebsitescamsareragingacrosstheUKvirtuallandscape. Scammers are back in force, especially focussing on the stupendously successful vaccine roll-out, exploiting the government inability to reach out fully to the weakest. However, notonlytheederlyorthereclusive,buteveryJoeBloggscanbesusceptibletoo,iftheir

3. vigilance hygiene is lethargic. That’s why, awareness – and mindful awareness at that – is an absolutegiven. What are copycat websites exactly? It cannot be gainsaid that proffering reviewing and forwarding services with respect to official governmental services – for instance, passport issual and ancillary services – is potentially extremely beneficial. However, when said governmental agencies themselves offer such services and attendant clarification, private business websites offering consultations really beg the question. How are these copycat websites offering better value? When they themselves fail to answer this, they can be labelled ‘scams’. They are not even offering better’ value for money. Whatever they are offering can be had from official sources at a fraction of the cost or downrightfree. Must copycat website necessarily bescams? Beingacopycatisnotillegal.Awebsitecanlegitimatelyofferadviceonofficialprocedures and processes that affect Joe Bloggs. However, when such providers fail to provide even a clear demarcation of their identity vis a vis the corresponding governmental official website they are trying so hard to make lucid – their business objective becomes clear as mud. With a clear intent to confuse ordinary consumers, copycat websites adopt official websites’ most important outer trappings, with the pretense of some sort of delegated autonomy. But, per relevant law, it is absolutely illegal to mislead consumers on purpose.in the same breath, defrauding the ordinary citizen , bilking him of funds after pre-meditated misrepresentation, is definitelyillegal. Copycat Website Scams: their (shady) ways ofbusiness We have Copycat Website Scams when instant messaging, phishing emails, or social media posts get a possible victim to visit a copycat website. Aiding deception facilitation, scammerscomeupwithanearfaithfulreplicaofagovernmentalwebsite.Thenthere’s

4. the tried and tested strategy concerning the (purported) HMRC email, carrying the tax refund intimation. The client, thus encouraged, has little hesitation in licking the link in the said email. Once he has clicked the link, Joe Bloggs finds himself in what he erroneously believes to be an official website. Here, he’s fleeced of his personal and financialdetails. Clone sites – a close cousin of copycatwebsites Clone site scams take undue advantage of people’s faith in famous brands by studiously mimicking such websites. Ir’s surprising so many clients cannot make out the difference between the real McCoy and the ersatz site. When clone sites and copycat sites make their appearance through Google adverts, many clients fall for the device hook, line, and sinker. Financial services and products can be brand cloned too. The FSCS or the Financial Services Compensation Scheme advises that clients must be aware that criminals clone famous financial service brands, producing fake adverts, websites, and documents. False piercecomparisonwebsitesandadvertsareharnessedtoreachpeoplesearchingforISAs, pensions, and suchlike. How do clone sites and copycat websites get folk to transfer funds? UsingtheFSCSlogoortheprotectedbadgesansofficialpermissiontodeceivetargetsinto thinking non-existent products are protected. Masquerading as FSCS employees, some scammers offer compensation for losses the clients had never suffered or for products that the FSCS does not protect , or that are plainly imaginary. They inveigle people into paying for compensation that shall never arrive, by accepting a fee for a claim they will allow to lapse, for a completely imaginaryloss. Per Action Fraud, more than GBP 78 million was lost courtesy brand cloning scams last year.WhenwetakeintheaveragefigurelostbyJoeBloggs–GBP45000+–onthe

5. average, we see the magnitude of the problem. Last year, the FCA issued 1000+ scam warnings. 40% of these were about cloned sites. New Plague-Proliferation of Pandemic Copycat Websitescams Scammers have been adroit at taking advantage of the COVID 19 Pandemic. For instance, there’s been a vaccination scam concerned with sending a phishing text message, ‘informing’ the recipient that their vaccination eligibility is confirmed, linking the text to a fake NHS page , which again asks the unsuspecting client for personal details. The hapless victim is not spared his financial details. Then there have been scams where folk think they are ordering PPE equipment that shall remain undelivered. Finally, there are scams concerned with fake testingkits. The government had to undertake consumer protection public messaging to inform the public of the expected eruption of scams , given the consideration that scammers were likely to take the average of the vaccineroll-out. It has also been generally acknowledged that scammers have adapted to the increase in online shopping and remote working by masquerading aas parcel delivery company employees or or e-commerce and broadband provideremployees. ContinueReading…………………..