We received this email from one of our staff:
Having to renew my passport, I checked to see if I could do it online. By googling, I found this site https://www.passports-uk.co.uk. It looked official, so without reading it properly I went ahead, filling in the form and sending £69.
They sent back the official passport application form with the relevant data (name, address, dob, passport no etc) filled in electronically.
So then I took my new pics, form and old passport to the Post Office. The till assistant seemed puzzled when I told her that I'd already paid. Then light dawned on her. She told me it was a scam and that I'd still have to pay the fee.
She added that there were quite of lots of these sites out there. I should have known better.
The moral of this story is to check carefully the sites you visit. If you need to get/renew a passport, just pick up a form at your local post office.
You may be interested to read this about the above company http://www.asa.org.uk/Rulings/Adjudications/2013/12/IQ-Channels-Ltd/SHP_ADJ_242630.aspx.
The more people that know about these scams the better.