evisa-gov.com appears to have scammed my mother

D__C_3

Hi,

My mother recently (05/03/15) applied for an e-visa to travel to Turkey. It appears she accidentally ended up at evisa-gov.com rather than the official evisa.gov.tr (Sorry, can't post links as a new user.)

To cut a long story short, evisa-gov.com have taken a payment from my mother's PayPal for $73 (the e-visa should only be $20 from the official website, but that's a different story) but have not emailed over the e-visa or even any other correspondence, despite it now being well over the 24 hours it stated it would take on the FAQs page.

They are also not responding to emails sent to the address attached to their PayPal account.

Can anybody suggest a next step or course of action?

Thanks.

System

Have you tried logging in and checking your application status?

System

It's an American site and clearly states on the front page that is not an official government site.
Clearly states that the cost is $73 which includes the $20 government charge for the visa.

Not a lot you can really do.

pogofish

Have you read this thread in PVW?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4869030

agrinnall

!!!!!! wrote: »

It's an American site and clearly states on the front page that is not an official government site.
Clearly states that the cost is $73 which includes the $20 government charge for the visa.

Not a lot you can really do.

There is if they don't provide the visa, or at least, there would be if it had been paid by card (chargeback for non delivery) - whether there's any comeback from PayPal is outside my expertise, but perhaps is covered in pogofish's link.

D__C_3

@muwump - Yeah, sorry forgot to mention that, we tried it & it just comes up with "No Data". I'll try again tonight to make sure it' not just stuck in the system or something. Regarding your secont post, it's not that she's been overcharged that's the issue, although that is frustrating, it's that they've not provided the visa at all.

@pogofish - That's the sort of thing I was looking for, thanks very much. I'll have a proper look at it whn I get chance tonight.

System

Unfortunately it is not a UK based site nor is it a copycat site.

Being realistic, I'm not sure whether anything in that thread will help in claiming from a non-UK site apart from trying chargeback

D__C_3

This has now been resolved. They finally responded when I disputed the transaction through PayPal. Their records claim the visa was sent within 10hrs of the transaction. For whatever reason, we never received it, not even in the junk folder, but when we flagged it up with PayPal, the re-sent it and all seems well.


However, it's worth noting that they charged $73 for a service the official Turkish government website provides $20. As !!!!!! mentioned, they're upfront about what they're going to charge so they're not really in the wrong, although my mother was misled by the "gov" in the url, which I would argue is deliberately misleading. Still, always do your research before you press "pay".

Thanks for you advice anyway.