CITC is warning Canadian travel agents about a new scam which is aimed directly at nationals of the 36 Visa Waiver Program countries who are planning to visit the U.S. on or after September 8th when the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's $14.00 electronic processing fee for travel authorization kicks in.
The scam is similar in nature to faxes and e-mails you may have seen from those pretending to represent banks and insurance companies, to the extent of emulating the look and feel of those companies. The scammers are imitating the U.S. Department of Homeland Security website on which travellers from the Visa Waiver Program countries must register as part of the process for entry into the United States.
The fake programs are designed to fool travellers into thinking they are filling out the real travel authorization forms but by doing so:
- steal personal information
- steal credit card information
- infect the applicant's computer with a virus
Since the US government announced the$14.00 fee for ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorization), several fake sites have been created to capitalize on the new requirement for travellers to use a credit card to pay for the service.
Searching ESTA on Google actually produces at least 4 results on the 1st page which claim to be the official site. The official DHS site is at https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov.
The fake sites offer a downloadable version of the travel authorization form, which the real ESTA site does not do. The very act of clicking ‘yes; to the download allows “malware” to infect your computer with everything from viruses to scanning programs that expose your personal files, leading to identity theft and other crimes.
Furthermore, some of the fake sites are taking full advantage of those who are not comfortable filling out a government form by charging fees ranging from $30.00 to $250.00 to assist withcompletion of the form.
Most unfortunately, when the traveller tries to enter the United States, believing that they have complied with official requirements, they can be turned away because their application has never been received.
More detail is available on the ESTA scams at McAfee's Security Insight.
