Having received a number of complaints from members of the public regarding unofficial websites offering passport services, European Health Insure cards renewals and driving theory test bookings, consumer watchdog Consumerline has issued a warning for people to ensure they are using official websites.
The most obvious sign that a site isn't an official is that you will be charged for a service that is typically free to do yourself. With many people not realising that they are on the official site, they end up paying the fee.
Consumerline manager, Stephen Thompson, said: "These unofficial websites offer to do little more that what you can do yourself." “One way of ensuring that you are not paying more than necessary is to use the NI Direct website, which makes it easy to navigate to the official site where you will not have to pay over the odds for any of these services.”
