Facebook users are selling driving test slots at inflated prices

As driving test waiting times increase, What? found 21 Facebook groups and several pages dedicated to selling test slots at inflated prices.

This year, learner drivers were forced to wait months to pass their tests. In September, the average waiting time for a driving test was 19.9 weeks in England, 15.1 weeks in Scotland and 13.5 weeks in Wales.

Some were quick to take advantage of students eager to get their licenses.

Unauthorized sellers used bots (a type of automated software) to buy test slots in bulk and resell them for £180 on Facebook.

These sellers often ask for your personal information and ask for payment by bank transfer.

It costs £62 to book a driving test at gov.uk, the only trusted place to book a driving test.

Read below to find out what we discovered when we contacted these sellers.

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Facebook groups and pages

We asked the administrators of Facebook pages and groups where driving tests are sold to reserve a place for next week.

Sellers quoted us between £112 and £180, adding hefty commissions to the £62 cost of the test.

On one Facebook page, a user wrote that they had 32 Test slots in England, with an administrator of a separate group boasting that they “specialise in finding early Test dates”.

One group administrator asked for our license number, driving test reference number and email address. As for, then we were told to pay by bank transfer.

Providing details to people you don’t know can put you at increased risk of identity theft and selling your data on the dark web, although we are not aware of this type of fraud.

• More details: What is identity theft?

Well-thought-out reservation system

One Facebook page advised us to join a WhatsApp group to “get priority updates on early driving tests”.

The admin of the WhatsApp group used disappearing messages (messages that are deleted after a certain period of time) to make announcements. They included a list of test slots and another WhatsApp link to follow to book a slot.

We followed the WhatsApp link and entered the WhatsApp chat. Phrase: “Hello, I would like to make an appointment for testing earlier.” My preferred name of the test center…”. has already been printed.

After sending the pre-typed message we were told that a £120 slot was available. We were then sent a “policy” stating that we had to pay by bank transfer and could not cancel after booking.

If we agreed to the policy, we were told to book a test at any test center in the UK and provide our booking details (as well as a photo of our previous driving license and theory test certificate, driving license number and date of our last practical test). After submitting this information, we were told that a test slot would be booked for us.

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What does the DVSA do?

We asked the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) what it is doing to stop these unofficial sellers from booking test slots.

A representative told us: “Combating the reselling of driving tests is a key priority, which is why we’ve taken steps to protect learner drivers and removed almost 5,000 accounts not associated with approved driving instructors.”

“Gov.uk is the only official way to book a practical driving test and we urge people to report any social media channels or posts offering unofficial test places or bookings on social media.”

The DVSA also said it had deployed new anti-bot technology to stop automated systems from buying tests fraudulently. The technology uses AI to recognize bot behavior patterns and block access to the website.

It also recruits driving examiners and conducts tests after hours to increase test availability.

We shared the Facebook groups we found with Meta and she told us she would investigate them.

On Facebook, you can report Pages, groups, and profiles by selecting the three dots in the upper right corner and clicking Report.

In WhatsApp, you can report contacts by clicking on their name or number, scrolling down and selecting “Report”.