EXCLUSIVE

A BRITISH tourist has warned other holidaymakers to avoid Turkish evisa rip off sites after spending nearly five times as much as what a normal one costs.

The man, who only wanted to be identified by his first name, Peter, told Didim Voices that he had spent £69 on the www.evisas.org website to obtain an evisa for Turkey.

However, tourists are advised the only official website they should use is www.evisa.gov.tr/en/ where an evisa costs between £13 and £14. The cost of the evisa is $20 – about £12.50 at today’s exchange rate. There is also a credit card admin charge of about £1.25.

Voices ran an effective campaign last summer to highlight a number of evisa rip-off sites and was able to guide tourists to the official one.

Peter, in an email to Voices, said: “I feel very stupid but also concerned this organisation now has my credit card details.

“I’ve just been ripped off by this site into paying £69 for them to process my evisa application which I now know I can do myself for about $20 and available in 5 minutes.

“Also, I’ve just learned that one cannot apply for an evisa until 3 months prior to our journey which is in June this year. There was no mention of that on the application or when I entered the trip date.”

He added: “The transaction was completed and the service provided in about 45 minutes from me completing the on-line application form.

“It is a clever scam being carried out by a number of organisations. The trick is for them to have their adverts come up first when you Google for a Turkey Visa. The Turkish government and their advice only come much later down the Google list.

“The scam was successful because I didn’t take the time and care to examine all the information before committing to their “service”.”

Last June, Voices launched a campaign to highlight the rip-off websites that charge vast amounts for an E-Visa to Turkey.

Some of the websites to avoid include:

https://turkey.evisas.org/ConfirmPayment.aspx An E-Visa costs: £69

www.evisa.eu.com/ An E-Visa costs: £55

https://turkey-evisa.com:7098/ An E-Visa costs: £27.99 

https://www.estaplus.com/e-visa.html – An E-Visa costs £20.

If you are based in the UK and have concerns about transactions regarding an evisa, then our advice is to get in touch with your credit card provider and trading standards.

Have you been ripped off by an evisa website, then email us at info@voicesnewspaper.com with your experience.