Letters: Beware those Web look-alike scams

Re “Like the DMV, but with more fees,” Column, Feb. 7

The online DMV look-alike scam has other incarnations.

As a reasonably intelligent retired professional, I recently attempted to file change-of-address information with the U.S. Postal Service. I came upon a very official-looking website. I filled in the requisite information, which included my credit card, being aware that the Postal Service requires a token $1 payment to confirm your identity.

When I reviewed my credit card statement, I noticed a $39 charge. I immediately contacted Capital One, which later confirmed that I had received nothing of any value from this scammer and deleted the charge.

I urge David Lazarus to continue to expose the existence of these truly useless companies, whose only purpose seems to be to mislead us into paying them for services that the government agencies otherwise provide at little or no charge. And shame on Google and the agencies themselves for enabling these rip-offs.

Charles Kent

Rancho Mission Viejo

If the DMV is going to license others to collect registration fees, it should require that their websites not be easily mistaken for the DMV’s, and that they prominently disclose that they are not the DMV and they charge additional fees.

David Fink

Los Angeles

I had an experience similar to the non-DMV vehicle registration renewal website Lazarus wrote about. When I tried to renew my passport in 2007, I nearly fell into this trap. The fee seemed excessive, so my instinct told me to dig deeper, thus “saving” me $35.

These shameful websites do absolutely nothing but vacuum cash from unsuspecting victims.

Bonnie Ann Baker

Irvine

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