Crit’air sticker scam: a Toulouse woman tells her misadventure
Companies sell these Crit’Air vignettes 16 times the normal price on the internet quite legally. Sophie * has had bitter experience of this and wants to avoid the people of Haut-Garonne who will rush to this type of site before the implementation of the low emission zone (ZFE) in the center of Toulouse on March 1, 2022.
Tuesday, March 1 is the big change. The part of Toulouse located inside the ring road, part of Colomiers and Tournefeuille will be prohibited for the most polluting vehicles such as old vans and old diesels. For circular in this low emission zone (ZFE) of 72 km², it will be necessary to have a Crit air sticker of level lower than 5.
Sophie wanted to take the lead and buy this Crit’Air sticker for her Renault Twingo in order to avoid receiving a fine of 68 euros in the event of an inspection. On her sofa, after a hard day’s work, she got it into her head to acquire the precious sesame via her smartphone. She tells the rest: “I went to Google and typed “Crit’air Toulouse”. From the first page, I fell into third or fourth position on the site www.vignette-pollution.org. There was a lot of info on it. I thought that looked serious. I entered my license plate number and let the site guide me. »
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“By typing on Google Crit’air Toulouse, I came across this site”
Subsequently, as she admits, she lacked vigilance: “As I was on my phone, I did not see the amount of the benefit. I entered my card number but my securi-pass was not activated. The transaction was completed automatically.” As a result, his bank account was debited with 59.90 euros, i.e. 16 times the normal price of the sticker if ordered on the official government website. certificate-air.gouv.fr (3.67 euros).
“I immediately contacted the gendarmerie because my concern went beyond the simple expense. I thought that this site could be extremely fraudulent and have recovered my bank details. They then explained to me that this site was legal and that unfortunately I could not file a complaint. I also informed my bank which could not cancel the transaction. »
Sophie hastened to fill out the retraction form nestled at the very bottom of the www.vignette-pollution.org site. The response was not long in coming. The voice: “We offer our customers an assistance service in obtaining a Crit’Air vignette for vehicles circulating in France. Once your order has been submitted, it is checked, formalized and processed in 1 working hour by our team (…) You have also checked the box stipulating that you waive your right of withdrawal so that the order is executed immediately. However, not wishing to have dissatisfied customers, we are ready to make a commercial gesture of 20 euros.
On the website of the Ministry of Ecological Transition, you can read in bold warnings on this kind of practice which benefits the development of EPZs everywhere in France.
The first name has been changed.