Is the website offering to arrange your Australian visa genuine?

Non-genuine websites are one of the most common scams that Australia immigration candidates must look out for.

A typical Australia immigration fraud involves unsuspecting people being redirected – through an advertisement for a visa for Australia – to another website. Such advertisements are usually promoted on popular social networking websites.

Often, in order to keep up the façade of being an official Australian immigration website, all the contact details provided are of Australia. Often, tricked into a false sense of security by seeing the official looking contact details, many end up believing that the website is indeed genuine.

Registration with such websites is often followed up with a phone call placed to the individual, allegedly from someone associated or working with the company.

Then, the individual is informed that they had been assessed for an Australian visa and were found to be eligible for the same. As per the caller, all that was now to be done by the individual was to pay a certain amount towards their Australian visa fee.

Typically very convincing and official-sounding, the caller talks their way into making the individual pay the specified amount with confidence. However, in such common immigration scams involving Australian visas, the company is never heard from again.

Following up on the visa application or getting a refund of the amount paid to the company is not possible. The phone numbers and addresses listed on such official-looking Australian immigration websites tend to be fake.

4 Tips to avoid website scams

Always ensure that your website browser is up to date as the filters on a browser can usually detect if a website is not genuine.

Also, before you make any payment, contact the owner of the website directly, by email or phone.

Conduct a web search online to see if anyone has reported any experience dealing with the concerned website.

Never give out any personal information unless you are absolutely certain of 2 things – whom you are dealing with, and the website being secure.

If you are looking to Migrate, Study, Invest, Visit, or Work Overseas, talk to Y-Axis, the World’s No. 1 Immigration & Visa Company.

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