ULEZ: The social media scammers who say they will make non-compliant autos exempt from pollutant cost
Fraudsters promoting counterfeit exemption certification for London’s newly prolonged extremely low emission zone are promoting extensively on social media, Sky News has discovered.
Adverts on Facebook Marketplace, TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram and WhatsApp declare to have the ability to make autos “ULEZ exempt” in as little as 24 hours utilizing nothing greater than the automobile’s logbook.
Transport for London (TfL) says it’s conscious of criminals making an attempt to submit functions and has already eliminated “many” that it suspects of being fraudulent.
The ULEZ was expanded to cover the whole of Greater London on Tuesday, that means vehicles that don’t meet the required emissions requirements now have to pay £12.50 per day to drive within the capital metropolis.
Generally, this implies most petrol vehicles made earlier than January 2006 and diesel vehicles made earlier than September 2015 at the moment are liable to pay the payment to drive in London. The solely method drivers could keep away from the fee whereas persevering with to drive their non-compliant automotive is thru upgrading the exhaust system or engine – which comes with a hefty price ticket within the hundreds.
However, the fraudsters uncovered by Sky News declare to have the ability to sport the system to make sure even probably the most polluting automotive is registered as assembly ULEZ requirements for a payment of as much as £1,000.
One vendor advised Sky News they’d efficiently “processed” greater than 100 autos utilizing the tactic.
“We are working with the police to make sure the criminals face the consequences of their actions and are working closely with vehicle manufacturers to prevent fraudulent applications being successful,” a TfL spokesperson mentioned.
Sky News discovered adverts on 4 of the principle social media platforms, in addition to the messaging platform WhatsApp
Most of the listings regarding ULEZ exemptions on Facebook Marketplace are folks promoting used vehicles and vans the place the vendor has specified that the automobile up on the market is exempt from the just lately expanded ULEZ costs.
However, a brief scroll reveals an altogether totally different kind of itemizing additionally options within the search.
Sky News discovered 5 sellers on Facebook’s second-hand gross sales platform providing to get the standing of autos beforehand deemed as non-compliant by TfL modified to say they meet emissions requirements for costs starting from £149 to £500.
An identical search on TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram reveals at the very least eight different related profiles the place the costs go as much as £1,000 for bigger autos.
Sky News discovered adverts for this throughout 4 of the preferred social media platforms, in addition to the messaging app WhatsApp
Each account seems to supply broadly the identical service – the place a automotive’s standing is modified in a matter of days utilizing only a small quantity of knowledge supplied by the customer.
Many of the sellers additionally define that fee is just taken as soon as TfL have confirmed the exemption has been granted.
Sky News went undercover utilizing a pretend social media profile to ascertain additional details about the shady schemes.
One vendor mentioned they’d been “processing” vehicles for greater than a 12 months and had efficiently registered greater than 100 autos as ULEZ compliant. They mentioned all that was required for the standing change to achieve success are photos of the automobile’s VC5 logbook in addition to the identify and handle to ship correspondence to.
As proof of the scheme’s viability, Sky News obtained the licence plate variety of two autos that the vendor claimed to have efficiently registered as compliant.
Using the TfL automobile checker, Sky News discovered that the autos supplied had been listed as non-compliant on Sunday however appeared registered as assembly emissions requirements the next morning.
Sky News checked the quantity plates supplied to us by the sellers on-line and located they had been registered as compliant on TfL’s on-line portal
An additional examine of the licence plate utilizing the general public automobile checker database exhibits each are diesel vehicles made earlier than the September 2015 minimize off date, that means they match the profile of a non-compliant automobile.
Sky News was not in a position to confirm whether or not both automobile had been modified to satisfy emissions requirements.
We discovered the same consequence once we researched a licence plate quantity shared in an advert for these providers posted by a TikTok consumer.
The automobile was listed as a diesel automotive courting again to 2008 – due to this fact seemingly not assembly the ULEZ emissions requirements. Like the others, nonetheless, it appeared as compliant with ULEZ on the TfL portal.
TfL says it’s now investigating these situations after it was alerted to them by Sky News.
Most sellers had been reluctant to disclose precisely how they might assure that the autos can be registered as ULEZ-compliant with TfL regardless of making no materials alterations to the automotive.
However, one indicated to Sky News that counterfeit paperwork could also be concerned.
The vendor advised Sky News that they maintain a certificates of conformity for the automobile, which is distributed to TFL earlier than being processed by “an insider” to ensure its success. They didn’t present any proof to help this declare.
TfL later confirmed to Sky News that they’re investigating fraudulent exercise regarding ULEZ exemptions.
“Drivers should not use the services advertised by these fraudsters as they will also be committing a criminal offence as well as wasting their money as their exemption will not stand,” a spokesperson for TfL mentioned.
Other providers claimed to be supplied by a number of the fraudsters embrace IDs, pretend MOT certificates, rushing and purple gentle ticket removing.
“These latest findings are really worrying as they indicate consumers could lose money and end up breaking the law themselves by trying to defraud TfL,” mentioned Lisa Webb, Consumer Law professional on the shopper rights web site Which?.
“Which? recently uncovered copycat websites that are ripping consumers off when they are trying to pay outstanding ULEZ charges, so opportunists are clearly out there trying to make a quick buck out of the ULEZ scheme.”
Both Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, and Snapchat say they don’t enable fraudulent exercise on their platforms.
The Facebook and Instagram posts Sky News flagged on this article have now been taken down and the Snapchat accounts have been disabled.
TikTok didn’t reply to Sky News’ request for remark.
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