Fake Cambodian E-visa Website!

[welo]

Please checkout my topic in the 'Visas and migration to other countries' forum and reply there!

Sorry for the cross post, want to get border-runners on board that might not read the other forum.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Fake-Cambodi...te-t281450.html

I just found out that there is a website around that issues fake Cambodian e-Visas.

The official website is

http://evisa.mfaic.gov.kh/e-visa/vindex.aspx

(as has been stated on this forum correctly many times.)

When I could not access the official website yesterday (timeout), I really got tricked when reading reports of a law suite between the company contracted to run the service and the Cambodian government. I then found a second website which looked nearly identical and very professional, and nearly fell for it.

However, I did another Google search today and it brought up a several reports that this second website is actually a FAKE, issuing fake Visas that will NOT be accepted at the border.

The supposedly fake website is www cambodiaonarrival com (don't want to publish the link in order not to boost that website).

The reports date back to March 2009, maybe it was discussed on thaivisa back then, I didn't find any reports on that topic though.

(hope the links don't violate forum rules, but hey, that's an important issue here!)

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-03/...nt_11021549.htm

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g2939...Phnom_Penh.html

Anybody knows more about it?

Anybody can confirm the e-Visa service on the official website is still working and reliable?

welo

Note: Please don't get off-topic and discuss the purpose of the e-Visa (do a forum search or start a new topic if you really want to).

[britmaveric]

THE EVISA - DNS is fked up need to use the IP addy instead.... 202.79.204.118

[britmaveric]

Actually scratch what I said above - ip address resolves to Singapore. Very well could be a spoof site.

[Martian]

Actually scratch what I said above - ip address resolves to Singapore. Very well could be a spoof site.

I just returned from a visit to Cambodia using an E-visa. I do believe it was issued from a website in Singapore. It could be that the Cambodian Embassy in Singapore found a good company to outsource this to. I did have a problem with the first payment attempt not returning a "successful transaction" notice and did it again the next day, only to have two $25 charges show up on my card. Of course the visa website didn't respond when I informed them of the error but my credit card company was quite prompt to remove one of them, even if it was at their cost.

Here's where I bought my visa:

http://evisa.mfaic.gov.kh/e-visa/vindex.aspx

Regards,

Martian

Edited July 18, 2009 by Martian

[Koh Chang]

i have now my third evisa from that website, i will see on monday. no problems with the two others.

[Maestro]

These two pages of the Cambodia e-Visa Blog have information that may be an answer to the puzzle of the erratic e-Visa web site.

http://www.cambodiaevisa.com/e-visa-users-feedback/

http://www.cambodiaevisa.com/2009/06/07/th...-visa-provider/

Personally, I would feel uneasy getting an e-Visa under these circumstances as I would fear that the visa I get could become invalid from one moment to the next because of rivalries within the Cambodian government about how to divide the booty.

--

Maestro

[Koh Chang]

i have now my third evisa from that website, i will see on monday. no problems with the two others.

no problems today with the e-visa.

[britmaveric]

Actually scratch what I said above - ip address resolves to Singapore. Very well could be a spoof site.

I just returned from a visit to Cambodia using an E-visa. I do believe it was issued from a website in Singapore. It could be that the Cambodian Embassy in Singapore found a good company to outsource this to. I did have a problem with the first payment attempt not returning a "successful transaction" notice and did it again the next day, only to have two $25 charges show up on my card. Of course the visa website didn't respond when I informed them of the error but my credit card company was quite prompt to remove one of them, even if it was at their cost.

Here's where I bought my visa:

http://evisa.mfaic.gov.kh/e-visa/vindex.aspx

Regards,

Martian

Used E-Visa last year without issue and it was stable. However keep getting....

Server not found

Firefox can't find the server at evisa.mfaic.gov.kh.

[lopburi3]

Firefox finds it fine for me here in Bagkok using OpenDNS. Also accessed several days ago when there was a fake site reported without any issues.

[britmaveric]

Interesting - only comes up using OpenDNS. hmmmmmmm

[Koh Chang]

today it shows only.

Not Found

HTTP Error 404. The requested resource is not found.

[lopburi3]

What web site are we talking about? The reference was http://evisa.mfaic.gov.kh/e-visa/vindex.aspx and it opens fine for me using OpenDNS or DNSAdvantage settings. As does the other website in the Admin post.

[Koh Chang]

What web site are we talking about? The reference was http://evisa.mfaic.gov.kh/e-visa/vindex.aspx and it opens fine for me using OpenDNS or DNSAdvantage settings. As does the other website in the Admin post.

all day long it was not possible eveb with opendns, but since shortly it opens up again. but if you try to apply a error comes up.

Server Error in '/e-visa' Application.

A potentially dangerous Request.Form value was detected from the client.....).

something seems to be wrong with this website. i think they are working on it, as the 404 error i had all day long means the file is not on the server.

[Meeone]

WARNING

Read this first:

http://www.cambodiaevisa.com/2009/06/07/th...-visa-provider/

quote:

There are no clues where the money goes if you pay your Visa fee online. It is skeptical now as the system is now managed by a bunch of crooks.

It gets even more murky now. The new website is down most of the time. The service provider changed the header to cover their sin of infringement. The site is a mess now if you compare it with the original site.

The new service provider claimed that it is an upgrade. We DOUBT…

Please do not apply Cambodia e-Visa until the justice prevails.

unquote

BTW as britmaveric had pointed out on another thread, using the IP address works with Firefox:

http://202.79.204.118/e-visa/vindex.aspx

Rather than risk giving out CC details to unknown entities, not mentioning the possibility of being issued a fake visa, I would certainly prefer to wait in line for the VoA at the airport

[Koh Chang]

BTW as britmaveric had pointed out on another thread, using the IP address works with Firefox:

http://202.79.204.118/e-visa/vindex.aspx

that works indeed, but it is not possible to finish a application. it end up in a loop.

i think for now it is better to use on arrival, even it is to expensive. at least in had lek/koh kong, it cost 1200 thb. usd are not accepted.

Edited July 25, 2009 by Koh Chang

[Meeone]

Apparently there is a fight going on to control the eVisa website - each accusing one another ... read the details here:

http://www.welovecambodia.com/2008/07/camb...e-visa-problem/

So till the problems are sorted out, I think it is best to avoid buying online.

[welo]

I come to understand why cross-posting is considered evil by forum purists - despite my efforts everybody is discussing on the 'wrong' thread. This thread here was meant to bring people over to the discussion in the 'Visas and migration to other countries' forum HERE.

Whatever, it seems this forum is followed by more users and better we keep discussing here.

This is what I just posted in the other thread:

Applied for the eVisa this morning and just received the eVisa by email - 3hrs processing time is pretty good (and a lot faster than the 3 working days stated on the website).

The application process was pretty straight forward. The step of approving the credit card payment took more than 30 seconds during which one might be tempted to refresh the browser - which would not be a good idea since it might mess up the process and lead to re-submission which ultimately might have you charged the fee 2 times. So just be patient and wait for the page to reload.

Another minor glitch is that after the message stating the success of the billing process (which you are supposed to print for documentation purposes) the page refreshes automatically after 20 seconds and redirects to another page which however fails. So it seems that at the moment the final page of the process will be an error page. Nevertheless, in my case (and I guess in others too) this is AFTER the process has successfully finished, so don't worry.

From what I undertand you can restart the application process as many times as you want during the first 2 steps when you enter the application details (e.g. I did since I decided to upload a different picture), but do NOT re-submit the billing page where you enter your credit card details (the sole exception is if your payment was rejected because you missed to fill a field or something like that). If you submit this page twice you might be charged twice - I don't think the intention is to trick people, just that the system does not seem to be sophisticated enough to work around these cases. The last page before the e-billing page even contains a note that warns not to re-submit.

Be sure to copy/write down/print the page BEFORE you start the e-billing. This page contains a reference number that you can use to track the status of your application (http://www.mfaic.gov.kh/e-visa/status.aspx).

In case you accidentally resubmit you can also contact the support staff and have it sorted out - see Chris' post here.

The problem that the domain is not accessible for TOT users and one has to use the IP instead seems to be an issue with the TOT DNS servers - this is not limited to this page but occurs with other pages too (though from my experience not as regularly as with the evisa page). Whatever, change your DNS servers to openDNS, DNSadvantage or similiar and the problem is gone.

Conclusion: It seems the eVisa service works pretty smooth but with minor glitches and is also pretty fast. However, the recent attacks on the website (see my screenshots above) and the change from paypal to a new e-billing company do not actually boost my confidence concerning security. So I would not recommend the service unless you have good reasons not to use the Visa On Arrival office at the border (e.g. save one passport page).

welo

Edited July 27, 2009 by welo

[welo]

And there has definitely been an attack on the eVisa website, check out my report here.

However, the website has been fixed meanwhile.

[djlest]

Yeah OPENDNS Works

funny that, is the Thai gov banning it?

Well considering that Thailand actually loses millions of baht each year forcing us to do border runs and pay 1000 for a stupid visa which we use for 3 minutes before walking back into LOS...

Well there is no way on earth the Thais would be out of stinging a foreigner for everything they could get, Unless....

Hmmm, unless they are in on it too?

Comon its obvious, The Thais are using Farangs to bail out some debt between cambodia and have been doing it for years sending us on visa runs, you dont seriously think the Thai embassy would let us do it for no reason...

They caught on to the evisa and have also banned it... its just not in corruptions interests to be so economical and easy and clean...

OPENDNS works, so go figure...