{"id":19502,"date":"2022-07-04T04:10:18","date_gmt":"2022-07-04T12:10:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2022\/07\/04\/news-13235\/"},"modified":"2022-07-04T04:10:18","modified_gmt":"2022-07-04T12:10:18","slug":"news-13235","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2022\/07\/04\/news-13235\/","title":{"rendered":"“Free UK visa” offers on WhatsApp are fakes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Credit to Author: Christopher Boyd| Date: Mon, 04 Jul 2022 11:20:16 +0000<\/strong><\/p>\n

A student friend recently shared a WhatsApp message, unsure if it was scam. The message claims to offer an easy to route to free visas, housing, accommodation, and medicine access.<\/p>\n

Here’s how we know it was a scam, and where it lead.<\/p>\n

It read as follows:<\/p>\n

\n

UK GOVERNMENT JOB RECRUITMENT 2022<\/strong>: This is open to all Individuals who wants to work in UK, Here is a great chance for you all to work conveniently in the UK. UK needs over 132,000 workers in 2022. Over 186,000 Jobs are Open for applying. THE PROGRAM COVERS: Travel expense. Housing. Accommodation. Medical facilities. Applicant must be 16 years or above. Can speak basic English. BENEFIT OF THE PROGRAM: Instant work permit. Visa application assistance. All nationalities can apply. Open to all individuals and students who want to work and study. Apply here [url removed]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

As you might suspect, there’s multiple red flags in the above claims for anyone considering signing up.<\/p>\n

The bogus visa claim checklist<\/h2>\n

The site gives the impression of being operated by UK Visas and Immigration, and repeats some of the errors and red flags from the WhatsApp message.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
“We are hiring”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

It said:<\/p>\n

We are urgently looking for foreigners to apply for the thousands of jobs already available in the United Kingdom. This application is free and upon approval you will be given a work permit, visa, plane tickets and accommodation in the UK for free.<\/p>\n

With even the most cursory of glances, the claims on this website simply don’t add up. Let’s dissect some of them:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. UKVI applications all begin here, on a gov.uk address<\/a>. This scam site is not hosted on a gov.uk address.<\/li>\n
  2. The Home Office does not<\/em> cover the cost of flights or accomodation for visa applicants coming to the UK.<\/li>\n
  3. There is no free access to medical services in the UK. Visa holders pay an annual immigration health surcharge<\/a> to access NHS services. This is paid upfront at visa application time.<\/li>\n
  4. The minimum age requirement<\/a> for a skilled work visa is 18, not “16 years or above”.<\/li>\n
  5. In most cases, applicants need to be able to demonstrate English ability<\/a> through one of several available qualifications, not just “can speak basic English”.<\/li>\n
  6. You won’t get an “Instant work permit” without paying an additional fee to make use of same day \/ next day processing.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    It’s website quiz time<\/h2>\n

    The site posed two questions, including marital and employment status. It then asks for first and last name, email address, and phone number. No matter what I entered, or even if I left all the form elements blank, I always got the following message:<\/p>\n

    \n

    After checking your applications, You have been approved to work in the United Kingdom 2022<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    I most certainly had not. It continued:<\/p>\n

    \n

    –Your UK VISA FORM will be available immediately after you click the “Invite Friends\/Group” button below to share this information with 15 friends or 5 groups on WhatsApp so That They Can Also be Aware of the PROGRAM.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    Unlike other sites along the same lines, this one didn’t check if I really was sending the link to people on WhatsApp, so I faked it. Did I get my visa after “sharing” the scam?<\/p>\n

    No, I did not.<\/p>\n

    A distinct lack of visa forms<\/h2>\n

    The clue is definitely in the title. Instead of the promised form, I was greeted by the following message:<\/p>\n

    \n
    \"\"
    No visas yet<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
    \n

    To facilitate the downloading of your UK VISA FORM you must complete this final step of Nationality Verification!<\/p>\n

    1.Click the Continent you are from and complete the given tasks, verification is by phone number or downloading, registering e.t.c.<\/p>\n

    (Remember, this step is very important, add your phone number to verify)<\/p>\n

    Do not skip any step..<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    I think my favourite part about all of this is that they used the logo for VISA, the financial multinational corporation. At this point, why not?<\/p>\n

    Of redirects and surveys<\/h2>\n

    Whether I choose “Africa” or “Other Continent”, I was directed to several sites selling drones and watches or asking for mobile numbers, alongside yet more quizzes. The visa forms? Not so much.<\/p>\n

    \n
    \"\"
    This is not what a visa form looks like<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

    While digging around for more information on the site involved in this, I came across this article<\/a> from the last day or so. Clearly, this site is doing the rounds in WhatsApp circles. There’s also some additional UK visa-related scams listed there too, one of which was bouncing around a few months ago<\/a>. All in all, this is yet another “if it’s too good to be true” escapade and should be avoided.<\/p>\n

    The post “Free UK visa” offers on WhatsApp are fakes<\/a> appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    https:\/\/blog.malwarebytes.com\/feed\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Credit to Author: Christopher Boyd| Date: Mon, 04 Jul 2022 11:20:16 +0000<\/strong><\/p>\n

    We take a look at a site claiming to offer “free” visa access to the UK via WhatsApp. All is not quite as it seems.<\/p>\n

    The post “Free UK visa” offers on WhatsApp are fakes<\/a> appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[10488,10378],"tags":[22955,3985,10574,887,6674,26832,22956,10440],"class_list":["post-19502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-malwarebytes","category-security","tag-home-office","tag-scam","tag-scams","tag-survey","tag-uk","tag-uk-visas-and-immigration","tag-ukvi","tag-whatsapp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19502\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}