OMG - Websites charging for ESTA - WARNING!!

[Disbabe]

I have just done a google search for ESTA and can't believe that some UK websites are charging people to register for ESTA. I did ours through the US homeland securities website and it was completely free, but I went on 2 sites which came up as top searches - 1 was charging £20 per application and another was charging $45 each!
Thought I should warn folk about this!

 

[T16GEM]

goodness me, are they legitimate sites? I thought that you were only meant to use the Homeland Security Site?

 

[Red-Snapper]

Some of them charge you for a "guide" on how to fill in the application.

Complete waste of money obviously - several of these sites are paid for links on google.

I guess its not illegal to take money off people for a guide - no matter how most of us would not need a guide.

 

[Pegasus928]

As long as it just a guide then it just a simple case of people losing money for something they don't need.
If they are offering to fill in the forms for you then it opens up a whole new danger as they would need ALL of your details to be able to do this.
With the money to be made in identity theft it's no wonder these companies can afford a paid for link on google.

Let's just hope that not too many people are fooled by this.

 

[wayneg]

Unfortunately there are sites out there trying to get your money for this. One I went to a few month back wanted $249 for their Premium service.

Click Here for the official site

 

[Pegasus928]

And how did they define Premium.

"We can type the application in 4 minutes as oppose to the 5 minutes it will take you"

Sounds like money well spent

 

[wayneg]

Can't see the site now, hopefully its been removed. I didn't look at what they offered. Maybe it included the flight

 

[saratogagirl]

I discovered these sites last weekend when doing Ians, mine and my fathers ESTA last week (father is off to Las Vegas soon), its shocking isn't it.

 

[juliebro]

I suppose they could have got the idea from the Post Office. Don't they have a passport application checking service or something similar, that they charge for?

Presumably some people get fazed by the idea of formfilling and don't have enough confidence to think they can do it correctly.

 

[wayneg]

I suppose they could have got the idea from the Post Office. Don't they have a passport application checking service or something similar, that they charge for?

Presumably some people get fazed by the idea of formfilling and don't have enough confidence to think they can do it correctly.

When I 1st saw PO charging to fill a form in I thought what a rip off but I see many posts of people paying for the service. No different what these sites are doing I guess, apart from giving any security details to a website is not something that should be done.