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👋 Looking to change your name by deed poll without paying nor giving over your personal information?
I suggest you use my website FreeDeedPoll.org.uk. Want an alternative? DeedPoll.lgbt is good too!
FreeDeedPoll.org is okay, but be aware that it’s run by a company who also sell deed poll services, so they’re not entirely impartial.
I’m stuck on an ethical question and I’m not entirely sure what to do.
I called out a scam…
At the start of this month I called out “ChangeNames.co.uk” as a scam after I received an email asking me to promote a “free deed poll” service:
When I looked into it, my “scam alarm” went off time and again. I couldn’t believe that this wasn’t an inelegant attempt to harvest personal information:
- The domain name wasn’t even registered (which I exploited by registering it!), which felt like someone claiming a level of authority they didn’t have or the work of an AI bot.
- Some of the links were broken: again like some kind of AI scatter-shot.
- It funnels to an email subscription signup form. It felt off that the “service” required that you sign up to an email list to get a deed poll?
- The form requested weird data. Both “full name” and “first name” are the kinds of things you want for email marketing but if you’re making a deed poll you probably want to be clear about whether you want the old or new one. A mandatory free text field asks for your reason for changing your name (which, in my opinion, is none of anybody else’s business!).
- The double opt-in uses tricky language. The confirmation email encourages you to click the “confirm your subscription” button by saying that “Confirmations help us know you have recieved [sic] the deed poll and everything works.” Why so keen on getting the double opt-in?
- What you eventually get is just a template. You get a link to a public Google Drive folder containing Word documents that you have to finish for yourself, same as you can get from more-reputable sources: e.g. gov.uk! The templates have mistakes that could, under some circumstances, render the document legally-questionable or even be considered fraudulent.
Sounds dubious, right? So I blogged about it.
But now I’m not so sure…
A few weeks later, I received an email, followed by a surge of comments, from Tav at ChangeNames.
The comments are a work of art, by the way:
- The first comment tries to expose the email address I used when testing the service, but instead doxxes some other random service user… (could you dream up a more-perfect example of why you shouldn’t give up your personal information in exchange for a deed poll!)
- The second comment sets up a straw man, claiming that I think everybody who asks for your personal details must be a scammer.
- The third comment is my favourite: it’s the one that says that I ought to be using my software engineering skills to make things better. As if that wasn’t what I’d been doing, via FreeDeedPoll.org.uk, for frickin’ ages:
Over the course of exchanging a couple of emails, I’m no longer certain that what we’re looking at is a scam.
Don’t get me wrong: I can’t possibly recommend this “service”, which requires that you surrender your personal information (with little assurance about how it’ll be used) to get the link to an uncustomised template (like the ones you can find online easily, but worse).
But I’m increasingly coming-around the arguments that Tav doesn’t intend harm. It could be that he’s trying to provide information about deeds poll to people, for free. His videos on YouTube and TikTok certainly provide good advice in a form that’s accessible to an audience that I, let’s face it, wouldn’t have a clue how to reach.
It’s possible that he’s genuine: that his motivations are a mixture of wanting to help people (and to bulk out his CV). I’ve played that game myself. Perhaps he’s just using the limited tools that he’s comfortable with to try to achieve that?
If I come to that conclusion, then obviously I’ll write a blog post correcting my statement!
And now I’ve got an ethical conundrum…
Tav’s asked if he can buy the changenames.co.uk domain name from me.
If I refuse to sell it to him just because his service is inferior and less privacy-respective than the many alternatives (including mine), he’ll just rebrand and buy a different domain name. All I’ll have achieved is alienating somebody who might well have the same end goal as me: making free deeds poll more widely available and better-understood.
But if I turn it over to him, am I morally complicit in his service… whether that turns out to be as bad as a scammy marketing list or as benign as running something that already exists (but better)?
What do you think?
I think this is one of these things that you already know what to do about.
As you say, intentions aside, he can always get other domains so it won’t change his reach. I’d hold on to yours… although.. how much is he offering! 😉
I’m really not sure! But I’ll sleep on it, and then perhaps I will be.
He’s not given a number. But I didn’t buy it to make a profit nor to trample on anybody else’s dreams; I bought it because I thought he was a scammer.
If I knew for sure that he was… I wouldn’t let him have it. If I knew for sure that he wasn’t… I’d give it to him for whatever I paid.
As it is… I’m not sure either way!
I wouldn’t hand over the domain (for free or cost) – this is a good lesson to him to actually have all the things set up before you start spamming people to advertise. He’s also being a bit of a dick by trying to get you to improve his crap product when you’ve already made a better, more useful version and have maintained it for a long time!
Nah, keep the domain. Stick a re-direct on it to your site.
There’s an old saying: “the road to he!! is paved with good intentions.” Even if he meant no ill-will with his service (which is a stretch from what you’ve outlined), the way he has done it betrays his ignorance. And, ignorance doesn’t absolve him of responsibility. In creating that site he was responsible in understanding the needs and requirements for such a site. This wasn’t the type of thing that someone should just vibe code without having knowledge and expertise in designing.