How to spot a fake eVisa website when booking your holiday
Online eVisa fraud is rife, with many scammers capitalising on the influx of pre-travel requirements for destinations around the world.
Copycat websites pose as official websites for eVisas or electronic travel authorisations, with the perpetrators stealing money, data and offering ridiculously inflated prices to process eVisa applications.
According to researchers at DNS Research Federation, Britons are now 10 times more likely to get scammed online than burgled, and around 11% of people have reported being scammed online.
And, as holidays approach, thousands of Brits face being tricked by eVisa scams.
For example, authorities have flagged around 150 fake India eVisa sites this season, including the bogus www.eVisa-india.in, http://indianeVisagov.in, visahq.com/india/ and http://indiavisa.co.in/ among others. Some of these are still operational and still scamming travellers on a daily basis.
It's important to be aware that the only official eVisa website for India is: https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/.
Police may not have the jurisdiction to shut down or even investigate fake eVisa sites, which means it's important to stop and consider if a site is fraudulent before sharing your details.
Follow these tips to protect yourself against fake eVisa fraud this travel season, and for what to do if you are scammed.
Many countries now require eVisas and electronic travel authorisations, which are applied for prior to travel to help shorten immigration processes on arrival.
These authorisations may have various acronyms (ESTA, ETIAS etc) depending on where you are travelling, but all require you to input your personal data for pre-clearance/a pre-visit check before you enter a country.
You may still be questioned about your stay when you arrive at border control, but by inputting data yourself pre-travel it reduces admin for immigration staff at your destination.
Travellers are usually charged a fee for eVisas and electronic travel authorisations (although some are free, for example to the Maldives or Seychelles).
Travelling to the United States for tourism requires an ESTA, in Australia an eVisitor is required, and an eVisa is required for countries including India. From 2026, those travelling to 30 European countries will require an ETIAS pre-travel authorisation.
This is a lot trickier than it sounds, as in theory anyone can copy an official website - often to a very high standard. Sites offering to process eVisas can simply steal your personal data and money or charge hundreds of pounds more than the cost of the eVisa itself.
Hundreds of people are getting scammed by these rip-off sites each day. Many of the scam websites are almost exact replicas of official sites, or have official-looking crests or country flags on their homepages.
Unfortunately, many of them are among the first websites that appear under search results for eVisas for particular countries. One easy way to identify if a website is safe is to look for "https://" and the padlock icon in the URL. If it doesn't have this on a payment page, never enter your personal information.
While it may take a little longer, try to navigate via an official embassy or consulate website - which will direct you to a legitimate eVisa processing site. Embassy and consulate websites typically end with a country's officially assigned country code. For the UK it's ".uk", for Denmark it's ".dk", for Thailand it's ".th", and so on.
If there's no country code, scroll to check for an "about" page. Most "processing" sites will not affiliate themselves with the government of a country. Look for a "contact us" section - if there isn't one, this should raise alarm bells. Also, click through the webpages on the site - very simple websites with only a few pages are likely not official visa sites.
Look for grammatical errors, although these may crop up on some country sites, such as China's. Check the price of the visa - if it seems expensive it probably has an unnecessary processing charge added to it by a third party. Currently, as of 2025, the most expensive travel visa for UK tourists is £207 for Guinea-Bissau, followed by £185 for Iran, £151 for China, while India is currently the sixth most expensive at £127.
If a site is guaranteeing a visa even though you don't meet a country's requirements, it's likely a scam. Some countries do list the fake eVisa websites they are aware of on their consulate, embassy and high commission websites.
Before purchasing, check if there is a refund policy, or a follow-up contact number in case your visa does not arrive.
Use a credit card - your credit card company will often insure against fraudulent transactions and refund lost money.
It's also worth checking whether your travel insurance compensates for transactions made on fraudulent travel sites.
In the first instance, ask for a refund from the site. Sometimes profitable "eVisa processing" sites will refund to avoid an investigation.
Contact your credit card company or bank account if you've been scammed. If no refund is offered, report the scam to the National Cyber Security Centre or Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 or via actionfraud.police.uk. If you live in Scotland, report it to Police Scotland directly by calling 101.
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