Consumer Watch with Candice Evans: How to avoid being ripped off by paying a lot more for certain services

How would you feel knowing you paid 10 times more than necessary just because you clicked on the first link in your search results? Consumer Protection is urging you to keep your eyes peeled for websites offering services for inflated prices, when the Government already provides these services for free or at a fraction of the cost. While not illegal, these commercial websites can be hard to spot as they will often look official or even use similar names, and they have usually paid to appear at the top of search results. The State Government recently issued a warning about commercial websites offering to obtain birth, death, and marriage certificates at inflated costs. Not only is the cost a concern, but so are the sensitive personal information and credit card details you might give away to an overseas company. Other examples of websites that charge a fee to complete a task that is already available for free, or at a much lower cost through official government platforms include vehicle registration checks, searching for lost or unclaimed superannuation, and even applying for a travel visa to other countries. The most common service Consumer Protection sees West Australians unintentionally spend more on is the Personal Property Securities Register check. This is a check you can do on a used vehicle, boat, caravan or trailer to see if money is owing, and whether it’s been written off or stolen. Going directly through the government site will only cost $2. Any other website will charge a lot more for the same information. Fuel price information is another common service people use third-party apps for, when it’s available for free through fuelwatch.wa.gov.au. You might be thinking “Well the fuel price app I use is free”. This may be the case, but it’s also worth thinking about the personal information a third-party app is collecting, and where it is collecting it from. Often these apps draw on the information provided on the FuelWatch website, meaning the data could be outdated, or in other cases it will draw from crowdsourced data, which could be incorrect. Going to FuelWatch means you can be confident the prices are current and right. There is an easy way to check if an official-looking website is actually official, as there is one thing these websites can’t copy, and that’s the “.gov.au” in the web address. The use of “.gov” is exclusively reserved globally for government agencies. This applies to local, WA and Federal Government websites, but also overseas. Keep in mind the country domain will follow the “.gov”. For example, the UK has “.gov.uk”, India uses “.gov.in”, and the US has a straight “.gov”. If your preferred search engine is Google, you may notice non-government websites have a tag showing “Not a government website” in the search results. This is another helpful way to ensure you go to the correct website. Remember, if you are not using an official government website, you may be paying more than necessary and there is no guarantee your personal or financial information will be safe. Candice Evans is senior regional officer for Consumer Protection in the Mid West