Just got scammed applying ETA to Canada. Normal price is 7 CA for the application fee, got charged 85 instead. It is the first search result after typing "official canada eta" in google, and their website is https://official-canada-eta.com/ BEWARE.
I paid using my Commonwealth mastercard. Can I dispute the transaction and get my money back after it is completed?
A lot of us have fallen for it, accepted it was our mistake and learnt from it. People who sit and blame others for their mistakes tend to be the annoying people in my life who complain about everything but themselves. It's OP's self-entitled attitude that people are calling out.
You are victim blaming. Even when you are the victim you still blame yourself. There is nothing self entitled about being annoyed about this scam and wanting your money back.
On one hand what they are doing is not illegal, but on the other they are preying on people like the OP not paying attention or researching enough.
Anyone could fall for this if not careful. I work in the fraud/risk industry, and a former colleague fell for the same trap for a Vietnam Visa (Yes we all made fun of him though).
I also used to see people in the industry (I thought were savvy and educated about these things) commenting on those stupid FB posts with a colour of a car/phone/laptop or sharing fake pages to win a flight or cruise hoping to "win" one…I mean, WTF!? you should know better!
Oh those stupid Facebook pages, c'mon people
If a website has to have the word "official" in its name, it probably isn't official.
This is what’s on the bottom of the page as a footer
“This website is owned and operated by sweet startup ltd, a private company registered in the United Kingdom. We are not affiliated with any government or embassy”
So much ^ This.
Always read the fine and even finer print… also a .com seriously
Not really a scam if they do what they promise to do
I think these sites are scams - the resulting ETA is not accepted?
the resulting ETA is accepted.
the sites are a third party who take the details provided by the client on their site and then apply for the eTA through the official site.
eTAs became a requirement in March for visa-exempt travellers. There’s a “leniency period” in effect right now — until Sept. 29, travellers can still board their flights without having submitted an eTA form.
Sorry to hear but unfortunately you don't have a case…it's like choosing insurance providers, some quotes more some quotes less..if they actually deliver then you have no case
I disagree.
It's more like accidentally visiting a website address like www.official-nrma-premiums.com.au because it was the first search result.
The website might appear legitimate enough to look like the real NRMA website.
You pay them $8,500 for a car premium that you would have paid $700 if you went to the genuine NRMA website.
The "fake" NRMA website merely submits the insurance application on your behalf and tacks on their $7,800 "service fee".
Actually yes you got a point..I take it back…
I always do multiple searches/comparisons before paying for something that's why I never thought of this!
100% this.
It's not illegal, just deceptive, given the fact that they use the word "official". No different from purchasing any product or service from a third party provider that advertises anything with the word "official" or "authentic" or "original" etc.
They're able to use those terms as it's near impossible to police, and if questioned, they are technically offering the "official" visa, just through a middle man with an extortionate service fee.
Its really no different from people obtaining a vehicle PPSR report from third party websites for $50+ when it's in fact $3~ from the official ppsr website. Except the third party ones in this case are less deceptive, as they don't use the terms "official-ppsr.com".
look as legit as this site http://www.aussiecitizenshiptest.com/
someone has been posting a meme from it on fakebook
I had a coworker who was going to Canada for work. I happened to walk past their desk as they were filling in the ETA form and quickly stopped them haha. I know the exact trick you are talking about and it is sad that it outranks the official government website depending on your google search. Glad to see you got a refund though!
Whether technically this kind of site can be called scam or not, it's is clearly deceptive. It is deliberately set up to look like the official site of the Government - with the purpose to deceive and rip off the victims.
I am rather surprised to see that, although this Ozbargain forum is supposed to be for the benefits and on the side of consumers, yet there are few individuals who post comments which do not seem to be in the support of consumers who were clearly cheated!
OP wasn't cheated though? A quick glance over the website should tell you it isn't a Canadian government website. OP paid for a service and received the service they paid for.
Does everyone need their hand held as they make it through life?
100% fools and their money are easily parted
An important issue associated with this kind of "Scam" is that any one can set up a site like this to steal your identity. Not only you get ripped off, they have in their possession all your important key details which they can electronically stored in their system. Everything: Name; Date of birth; Address; Phone numbers; Passport details; Credit Card details; …
Scary!!!
For future travels always find the correct countries website by looking it up using Australian Government site Smart Traveller
I was going to post about this
Same thing happened to me a few months ago, I left it to last minute and did exactly what you did, googled it the night before, applied for 3 visas (yes…three) and was applying for the fourth before I paid attention to all the points that people mentioned above.
Tried a chargeback but did't work, I got what I paid for, so no case.
A very expensive lesson learnt. But hey, the holiday was awesome :)
Hi OP - About 2 years ago, while being rushy, I also fell for a scam like this. It was with the ESTA for the US. This mob also operated from England.
As soon as I realised my mistake, I fired them an email to ask for an immediate cancellation (without giving them any reason!).
They obliged, and I got my money back from the credit card transaction.
I believe this mob realised that their "business" is not quite ethical / legitimate - So if a customer requests for cancellation, they would do that to keep out of troubles. Otherwise, they are quite happy to bank all the money they rip off.
Good to read as tips:
How to Avoid ESTA Fraud?
https://visaguide.world/tips/how-to-avoid-esta-fraud/
https://www.auimmigration.net/citizenship-application/?gclid…
This is another misleading site if you search for Australia citizenship. It will return top in the search.
Happens in Australia too. Business name registration, I’ve had two letters this week for mine to renew with third party company’s, I just happened to check the second one for their price, $199 for three years when ASIC charges like $86 for three years. Not a scam, they just making money like the rest of us.
Everyone makes mistakes… I once bought tickets for Disneyland instead of Disney world :(
Oh =(
Did you realise straight away or were you queuing trying to scan the ticket?!
I realised straight away why it was a bit cheaper than World. I did managed to get them refunded but lost a little bit due to a fee for refunding. I was just happy enough to get most of it back.
Live and learn!
It does seem predatory and offering something that is govt issued and has a fixed price (considerably lower) is just a sh!t act.
But well people click it and people are making money out of it.
I also had seen more non-government links when I got an eTA but kept looking as it seemed very high considering I had just done an ESTA the same day and it was cheap.
looks like you are not the only one, can see similar complaints to CIC, refer to below link
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/helpcentre/answer.asp?qnum=1233…
Just like the PPSR trap. People Google and find the dodgy business ppsr.com.au which charge you 18x more ($36.95) and they collect and sell you personal data to third parties. They claim they are 'Official' as well.
While the genuine PPSR government website https://www.ppsr.gov.au/ only cost you $2
Disclaimer on their website when you scroll down the main page
This website is owned and operated by sweet startup ltd, a private company registered in the United Kingdom. We are not affiliated with any government or embassy.
This is no different to what carsales does when you order a revs history report…. use the government site it cost $3, use their service it's $30.
you should know to always go to the .gov site not a .com site…
But the real site is not .gov
The domain name is catering to people searching for the word 'official' inside that search term. As the government site does not need to keep shouting "official" on the site then the site with the word "official" ranks higher.
Searching for just Canada ETA lists the government site in first place. Add the word "official" to your search and you get the site you found ranking higher. Unfortunately that seems logical and correct to me..
Wasn't a scam at all. You didn't do your research and you paid a premium. Got to learn the hard way.
Fools are everywhere, where they just can't read URLs and distinguish how offical and fake URL looks like.
Instead of running to the government to save you from your own stupidity why not try and use some common sense.
Do you really think a first world country and an ally of Australia is going to charge $85 per person to get a tourist visa?
Would it be reasonable for Australia government to hypothetically charge Canadians $85 just to get a tourist visa?
The application fee for an Australian tourist visa (subclass 600) is AUD $140.
The application fee for an Canadian visitor visa is CAD $100.
eTA (Canada) and ETA (Australia) are not visas. They are merely "a permit to board" flights for visa waivers. For example, if you enter Canada by land or sea, you do not need an eTA. An eTA guarantees your rights to board only. A border officer has the discretion to determine your eligibility to enter. Visa holders, however, are rarely denied entry unless there is clear evidence of fraud or other illegal activities.
I did a similar thing for the US (ESTA). I cancelled my card.
If you haven't received your ETA yet… Maybe try what I did.
I applied through the government website within half an hour. when they tried to do it, they got declined because I already have ESTA. Didn't get charged.
IT'S A SCAM!!! I AM SOO ENTITLED THAT I DIDN'T REALSIE I FELL FOR A RESELLER PROGRAM AND NOW BROADCAST HOW GULLIBLE I AM TO THE WORLD AND PASS IT OFF AS A SCAMMING WEBSITE!!!
jesus christ this forum is going backwards.
It's a scam because they are pretending to be the official website, maybe legal, but def unethical.
To someone who was gullible and paid an inflated price your opinion is bias, of course you would say it's a scam because they used the word official.
Truth is you can also use the world official to represent the documents being genuine, which is what you paid for and received.
The website doesn't seem like they're representing themselves as the official government agency, but merely advertising they're selling the official documents.
If a website url is genuine-Apple.com is that now Apple Inc? No. They're representing the fact they sell genuine Apple products…
It happens in Australia, Revs check… It's the same check as the PPRS that sells for $1.50 and revs and 3rd party sites sell for $15-$30…
It's not a scam mate, it's absolutely your lack of ability to research, which is scary, because I couldn't image the personal details needed for the eta would be only an email address which not only means you paid heavily inflated prices but opened the opportunity for identity theft. That's the scariest bit..
Congrats. You just helped send another kid to private school
Hey OP, Why did not you simply googled for "canada eta" ?
In that case, Google had showed you the genuine, legitimate and authentic source of Canada ETA, which is this site https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/se…
But based on your query, "official canada eta", Google thought you were specifically looking for this URL/website https://official-canada-eta.com/ as you can see how close your search terms is to the URL/website name.
This seems like a typical case of GIGO when you deal with a computerized system.
Also, spend some money on a good AntiVirus software. When I tried to open this https://official-canada-eta.com/
My antivirus screamed at me with this https://imgur.com/Lgi8k5T and immediately blocked that site.
Man, i'm surprised by the complete lack of sympathy here.
Clearly this website exists to profit off misleading consumers. OP and many others were under the impression this is an official government service.
The fact that they refunded him $60 only further proves this. No legitimate business will refund 80% of the cost of a service while still providing that service.
The fact that people are sending personal information including passport documents to this company is concerning.
The bottom of the page states the following:
"This website is owned and operated by sweet startup ltd, a private company registered in the United Kingdom. We are not affiliated with any government or embassy.
© 2013-2019 official-canada-eta.com. All rights reserved.
This site uses cookies only for analytics purposes. "
Kind of a dead giveaway.
Website name alrd sounds dodgy af…
It’s OK, lesson learnt OP
The replies here have been pretty harsh, ausbargain has a lot of idiots basically. Most people have fallen for some sort of scam at some point in their life yet get very self righteous when someone else does. I agree businesses like this should be shut down.