Ulez: Drivers fined after using scam copycat websites

Drivers who mistakenly paid Ulez charges on websites run by copycat scammers have been fined by Transport for London (TfL) for non-payment.

Those with more polluting vehicles must pay £12.50 a day to drive within all London boroughs or risk being fined.

Bobby Sharp paid more than £500 in TfL fines after using a copycat website which appeared on her search results.

TfL says it works with search engines to remove results and its own website is the only place to pay online.

The Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) has been expanded into outer London having first been introduced in central London in 2019.

As well as paying online, the charge can be paid by phone up to three days after travelling in the zone. The penalty for not paying it is £180, which goes down to £90 if paid within 14 days.

Copycat scammers have created their own websites which look similar to TfL's, where they collect money from unsuspecting victims.

This is then not passed on to the transport authority, meaning it has no record of a driver's payment and therefore issues fines.

Ms Sharp, 65, drove her non-compliant diesel car from Langport in Somerset to visit her sister for the Chelsea Flower Show in May.

She twice paid the scammers £17.50 and says she "doesn't want to go anywhere near London now" following her £540 fine from TfL.

Ms Sharp said: "Let's just say I felt quite ill and quite faint afterwards because I thought I'd done the right thing by paying and then found out I hadn't paid at all.

"TfL have not made it easy. Their official site is not user friendly, whereas the scammers' was so easy, and I thought 'Well, I don't know why I was so worried about this'.

"The whole process was frustrating once I had to do it properly."

Seb Dance, deputy mayor for transport, described the situation as "an unfortunate symptom of modern life".

He said: "Unfortunately, there are copycat websites for institutions wherever you go. It's a huge problem and, obviously, we work with internet companies to remove them when we find them."

David Kenna, who lives in Bromley, south-east London, paid using a site at the top of his search engine after he "accidentally strayed" in the Ulez. He later received a £90 fine for non-payment and said he would like to see more leniency from TfL for a first offence.

He said: "The thing that annoyed us particularly was TfL had no sympathy whatsoever. They couldn't give a monkeys, basically. Nobody ever contacted us to ask about this scamming site.

"We proved we paid the fee, obviously to the wrong people. We just assumed they'd say 'Oh well, never mind. Pay it to us now and we'll let you off'.

"I know that with the Dartford crossing you get a free hit. They let you off the first one and after that you get fined if you don't pay. TfL obviously don't have that policy."

In 2014, Google removed unofficial Congestion Charge payment adverts after advice from TfL. The Earl of Shrewsbury, a Conservative peer, was one of those caught out.

Nick Stapleton, a reporter on BBC TV series Scam Interceptors, warned about the dangers of relying on "sponsored ads" which often appear at the top of search engines.

He said: "It's probably becoming more and more common, as with all scams in the UK.

"Fraud is now our most common type of crime - it represents more than 40% of all crime - and I would advise everyone to be really cautious whenever they are trying to do something new. Double check everything."

A TfL spokesperson said: "We are sorry to hear of any customers that may have been caught out in this way. Where someone has been fined in relation to one of these cases, we do look at their circumstances and do show discretion where appropriate.

"TfL has no association with third party organisations that process charges, and we work proactively with search engine companies such as Google, as well as with Advertising Standards and Trading Standards, to remove them entirely from the internet.

"We advise drivers who have been impacted by overcharging by a third party site to contact Trading Standards."

Additional reporting by Lauren Stanley

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