Vacation without a permit: how fraudsters cheat on obtaining visas
The desire to get a visa quickly may result in the loss of money and personal data for Russians, experts have warned. Fraudsters promise to provide visas quickly, without the risk of rejection or using certain connections, but in fact they deceive gullible clients. Read the Izvestia article about the dangers of such schemes and how to protect yourself from them.
Why is visa fraud interesting to scammers
Summer is traditionally a tourist season, and foreign resorts are also popular among Russians. At the same time, obtaining a visa is often a complex and multi-step process, including collecting and filling out documents, making an appointment and waiting for a long time, says Maria Mikhailova, head of the Angara SOC brand protection group, in an interview with Izvestia.
— Limited time and unclear requirements make the offer to apply for a visa faster, without the risk of rejection or allegedly "through connections" attractive, — says the expert. — Scammers actively use such promises, creating traps for gullible travelers.
If people travel to the Schengen countries, they are clearly secured, and fraudsters have something to profit from them, adds Ashot Oganesyan, founder of DLBI, a data leak intelligence and darknet monitoring service. In addition, the process itself takes place outside the framework of Russian law and is generally opaque, so requests that would normally seem strange do not arouse suspicion in this situation. Tourists are often in a hurry and are ready, for example, to pay extra for urgency.
— To apply for a visa, you need documents that contain a lot of personal data: passport, foreign passport, income certificates and from the place of work / study, documents of children, and so on, — says Konstantin Gorbunov, a leading expert on network threats, web developer of the Security Code company. — Thus, attackers can get a lot of personal information at once.
Which countries' visas are most often used by fraudsters
Due to the current geopolitical situation, Russians sometimes face difficulties in applying for Schengen visas, says Vitaly Fomin, head of the information security analyst group at the Digital Economy League. Although, according to the European Commission, in 2024, the failure rate decreased from 10.6% to 7.5% compared to 2023. However, many people continue to worry that the application will not be approved.
"Therefore, fraudsters actively use the high demand for visas in the Schengen area and present themselves as employees of the visa centers of Italy, Spain and France — these countries are leading in the number of applications among Russians," says the interlocutor of Izvestia.
The tense geopolitical situation and the high bureaucratic complexity of the process of forming documents in the countries of the Schengen area do not repel tourists and businessmen, and thus attract fraudsters, adds Irina Dmitrieva, an analyst engineer at Gazinformservice.
In addition to EU countries, visas to the USA and the UK are popular. They require a long stage of approvals, interviews, background checks, and paid consular fees — all of which give rise to phishing and extortion.
— Criminals mostly work with countries where there is a high level of migration or tourism, where there are electronic visa application systems. All this makes it easier to forge documents and monetize efforts," says Maria Mikhailova.
What kind of "visa" fraud schemes should we expect in 2025
Fraudsters around the world have been using various visa-related tricks for years. When the UK introduced the Electronic Entry Permit (ETA) system in April 2025, fake websites appeared to collect money and personal data of tourists. Then a similar scheme was implemented in Israel thanks to the electronic permit system for visitors from visa-free countries (ETA-IL), Maria Mikhailova notes.
— Earlier, in 2023, fraudsters used bots to reserve seats on the website of visa centers and then resell them at an inflated price. In the future, criminals will actively use phishing sites that mimic even the functionality of official portals, — says the interlocutor of Izvestia.
It is also possible to distribute false instructions and requirements, malicious links offering to fill out additional questionnaires and QR codes through social networks and messengers, the expert believes.
With the spread of artificial intelligence (AI), we should expect the emergence of more sophisticated ways of deception, adds Vitaly Fomin. In particular, AI makes it much easier to create fake documents that are difficult to distinguish from real ones.
At the same time, criminals may not request card details and other sensitive information — it is enough for the victim to agree to verify the data in the visa allegedly sent in the attachment. When opening this file, the gadget will be infected.
— There are many options: It can be a keylogger (a program that records all keystrokes and then transmits this information to fraudsters) or other malware, says Vitaly Fomin. — It is not uncommon for fraudsters to promise to issue a visa even after being refused at the embassy, and the person who needs the documents falls into a trap.
What are the dangers of visa fraud schemes?
Most often, the targets of fraudsters' "visa" schemes are beginners, but experienced travelers who want to speed up the process also come across, says Maria Mikhailova. However, losing money for non-existent services is only part of the problem.
— Usually, solvent people fall into the trap, since they have the opportunity to pay for an expensive foreign trip. This is what attracts scammers," says Konstantin Gorbunov. — If the deception succeeds, the criminals will receive passport data, bank cards and access to an account on Gosuslugi. They use all this information for subsequent schemes using social engineering.
The situation is complicated by the fact that if you can distinguish a phishing site by domain, then it is almost impossible to verify the identity of the caller of an employee of the visa application center or consulate, Ashot Oganesyan adds. And if we are talking about "unofficial payments" for urgency and similar services, then the victims themselves subsequently hide the fact of an attempt to pay a bribe for fear of criminal prosecution or visa ban.
How to protect yourself from "visa" fraud schemes
In order to protect yourself from fraud, experts recommend following a number of security measures:
• First of all, it is worth examining the availability of the referral on the embassy's website and relevant forums. You can also check the availability of tours on the websites of popular tour operators;
• the application and visa application documents must be submitted only to authorized visa application centers, whose contacts can be found on the websites of embassies;
• it is important to clarify the visa processing scenario, this will help track down suspicious requests from false employees;
• When you receive an incoming call, you must verify the phone number with the contacts on the official website. If you request any SMS codes, you should immediately stop talking and contact the embassy or visa application center through the contacts on the official website.
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