UK advertising watchdog bans three “copycat” websites

The UK advertising watchdog has banned three "copycat" websites masquerading as government channels for health insurance cards, passports and birth certificates, leaving consumers loosing thousands of pounds, The Guardian reported.

The websites – europeanhealthcard.org.uk, uk-officialservices.co.uk and ukpassportoffices.co.uk tricked users into believing them to be official providers of services, according to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

Ruling that all three websites must not appear again in their current format, the ASA also ordered that any future versions must include prominent disclaimers explaining that they were not official channels and provide with full details of all costs to be charged by them.

According to the ASA, it received large numbers of consumer complaints about websites that offered access to online government services, but which were not official channels and typically charged a premium.

It added that after research about the public's experience of "copycat" websites in July, it conducted in-depth investigations to decide how such sites need present their services to avoid misleading consumers.

According to the ASA the europeanhealthcard.org.uk website charged for an application verification service, when the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) was available free if applied for on the official gov.uk website.

Through the uk-officialservices.co.uk website users could obtain birth, adoption, marriage, civil partnership and death certificates but was not the official site and in addition to costs charged routinely by the official gov.uk website, it charged a premium.

According to the ASA, consumers were likely to infer that a website enabling them to obtain government-issued certificates was official.

Meanwhile Official Services, which offered a birth, death and marriage certificate service, UK Passport Offices and European Health Card had been told by the ASA not to present their service and the application process in a way which would likely mislead consumers into thinking it was the official service, The Drum reported.

Also they should not use the term "official" to describe the services they offered or feature a crown emblem in a logo or elsewhere. There should also be a prominent disclaimer alongside calls to action such as "Apply now".

Following the arrest of five people July, after they scammed consumers into paying fees for government documents, the ASA along with The National Trading Standards Board (NTSB) said they would ''clamp down'' on those who operated the fraudulent sites.

Earlier this month, ASA chief Guy Parker wrote an article for The Drum to explain the five year strategy of the watchdog, which would mark a step change in the way it governed ads.