Through the United States Visa Waiver Program, people of certain countries are exempt from the requirement to get a visa in order to visit the United States for tourism, business, or transit purposes for up to ninety days at a time. However, in order to gain entry into the United States, citizens of these nations will still be required to submit an application through the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA).
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| ESTA Fraud |
Since January 2009, citizens of the VWP who desire to enter the country have been required to get a Travel Authorization before doing so. The procedure of applying for an ESTA is incredibly simple, and it will literally only take a few minutes for you to finish it and receive notification that your application has been approved.
However, ever since the United States started charging applicants a fee for the application in 2010, there have been many websites operating around the world by different companies in the name of ESTA. These websites take advantage of applicants by forcing them to pay prices that are up to ten times higher for the authorization, and they steal their personal information.
The Official Website of the ESTA
In spite of the fact that this is not the case, a great number of other websites continue to operate under the pretense that they are the official ESTA website. There is just one website that can be considered an official ESTA website, and that website is:
Every other website, whether of whether it ends in.com,.org,.us,.esta, or another extension, is unofficial and is not run by or on behalf of the government of the United States of America. Keep in mind that the domain name for every government website in the US is.gov.
Applicants are required to pay a price of $14.00 in order to receive an official ESTA, which is comprised of a fee of $10.00 that is collected in accordance with the Travel Promotion Act (TPA), and a fee of $4.00 for the administration of ESTA.
What exactly are fraudulent ESTA websites?
There are many ESTA scam websites out there, and many of them have been able to develop quite convincing websites that appear pretty similar to the official ESTA website. Because of this, it can be difficult to spot an ESTA scam website at times. By pretending to be the ESTA website, they take advantage of people's laziness and are often successful in duping those who seek to submit an application for a travel permission.
When a tourist applies for a travel authorization through one of these websites, the costs associated with obtaining the authorization are significantly increased. These websites, more often than not, do not give the service that you paid for and do not even attempt to submit an ESTA application at the official site. Instead, they take your money and do not provide the service that you paid for. After you have submitted your application on one of these fraudulent websites, you will typically receive a certificate, but when you check its validity, you will find that it is fake. This indicates that you have not received your Travel Authorization and that you have also lost your money.
When you apply through one of these websites, they will have access to all of your personal information. This raises a second worry. They not only have your money, but also the information from your bank card and your travel documents. They are even aware of the dates on which you intend to depart from your residence, which is extremely unsettling and yet another very compelling reason to exercise extreme caution when submitting an application for a Travel Authorization.
What options do I have if I applied through a site that turned out to be a scam?
As soon as you become aware that you have applied for a visa to enter the United States through a fraudulent website rather than the official one, you should get in touch with the United States visa information service in your home country.
However, if you have already registered for an ESTA through a fraudulent website, the best course of action is to immediately call your bank or credit card company for assistance as soon as you become aware of the situation. Inform them that you have used your credit card on a website that you suspect to be fraudulent, and inquire as to whether or not they are able to halt or reverse the transaction.
Companies That Are Not Their Own
These businesses assert that they are able to provide their services to anyone who are interested in entering the United States and assisting them with the application procedure. Users merely input their passport information and other information, exactly as they are required to do when completing the application form on the official ESTA website. However, it is difficult to discern what services such websites provide because users only input their passport information.
The information you provided is subsequently forwarded to the official website by the third-party provider, which also makes the standard payment of $14.00.
Because of this, we want to make sure that if you have submitted an application through a third-party website, you use the reference number that was provided to you to verify the application on the official website for the United States Government. Make sure that the information contained in your application is correct and that it has been entered into the system. You may experience delays upon arrival in the United States if the information that you have been given is wrong.
How to Avoid Being a Victim of ESTA Fraud?
Applying for an ESTA may only be done legitimately through the official website, which can be found at https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov. This is the easiest method to avoid being a victim of ESTA fraud. You will not be subject to other forms of fraud or waste money on processing services that are unneeded if you proceed in this manner.
Carefully read the information about applying for ESTA, check the requirements, and make sure you meet all of the requirements so that you do not become a victim of identity theft by providing personal information to con artists when the United States government does not even require such information. You can acquire additional knowledge regarding ESTA by reading this page or going to the official website.
It is important that you are aware that it will be difficult to get your money back if you have filed for an ESTA through a third-party firm and that company has already applied for you on the official ESTA website. Please keep this in mind. This is due to the fact that the ESTA approval will be automatically denied if the charge of $14.00 that was submitted to the US government is repaid, and this may also apply to any future applications.
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