This is their address
Postal Address:
Passport Direct Trading Style of ECS Ltd
128-136 High St
Edgware
Middlesex
HA8 7TT
Just to clarify, ECS Limited is a perfectly respectable firm based in Lancashire - they sell copier toner and they have nothing to do with the criminals who run PassportDirect. It would seem that the directors of Elucidate Contractor Services (ECS) Limited don't actually understand the provisions of the Companies Act 2006 or the fact that their claims to be ECS Limited give the real company the evidence to sue them for "passing off", i.e. the potential damage that could be caused to the reputation and business of the real ECS Limited by the ongoing frauds committed by Elucidate Contractor Services (ECS) Limited.
I say "frauds", because if you look carefully at the text shown on the pages that you need to complete on PassportDirect, you will see that they do indeed pass themselves off as the real Passport Office, no matter what they claim on the tiny grey print at the foot of the page, which you don't see, because there is so much white space at the foot of each page that you can't see it unless you scroll down through the blank parts underneath the form. Not the actions of a reputable and honest company!
I am currently suing them using Part 27 proceedings in the County Court - luckily, we spotted within a few minutes after making payment that this is not the real Passport Office and served a cancellation notice within an hour under The Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000. Of course, we heard nothing at all from them, so after serving a "letter before proceedings" on them, we issued the summons and we await the case to be listed at our local County Court - it will be transferred there from Northampton County Court (Money Claim Online) under Rule 12(2) of the Civil Procedure Rules.
If you have received any e-mails from these cowboys that doesn't clearly list the (correct) company name (including the word "Limited"), registered office address, company number, and the fact that it is registered in England, complain to Trading Standards that the company is committing offences under Regulations 6 and 7 of the Companies (Trading Disclosures) Regulations 2008, made under Sections 82 to 85 of the Companies Act 2006.
The implementation of Google's policy not to list paid-for services that can be obtained free has knocked almost all of the fraudsters off the first page of results - Google has always had such a policy, but never actually bothered to follow it until the recent outcry about its role in sending unwitting victims to these criminals' Web sites. With a bit of luck, the companies will go bust or be wound up, but in any event, try asking your credit card company to "charge back" the money you paid to them... under English law, a contract between two parties that have different understandings of what the contract is intended to deliver is void
ab initio ("from the outset"), and in any event, the purchaser thinks he/she is paying for passport renewal, not for the scammers to simply type their details into the Passport Office web site for them, so the claim for charge-back is based on you not getting the service that you paid for. If enough people do that, the criminals will lose their ability to accept credit card payments, which of course cuts off the route by which they take victims' money.
And if the company goes bust or is wound up, you are entitle to claim the charge-back anyway!
Attention dazlerd... your payment of £138 is over £100, so if your wife used a credit card to make payment, you have an additional legal right to sue your credit card company jointly - write to them and quote Section 75 Consumer Credit Act 1974 and make it clear that you are prepared to sue Elucidate Contractor Services (ECS) Limited in the County Court, and that they
(the credit card company) will be joint defendants to these proceedings if you don't get your money back. This will provide them with an additional reason to get things settled quickly.
So get busy, people...!