Indian Community in Australia

Migration Agent Scam in Sydney:  No Visa No Job No Refund – ALL Reader Please share on your Facebook and help others so they don’t fall in this type of scam.

Recently one of the members of our Indians in Sydney Facebook community has lost $31,000 in migration scam. This Person wants to hide his identity as he said he has already received many threats from this Agent. For this purpose, I have changed his name to Vikash for this article. I also have not published agent’s name for a legal reason (will publish once there is some update from this court case) but after reading this article you will have some idea what techniques some people use to cheat others as well as what cautions you should take.

Vikash was granted 2 years temporary visa after his study. To receive permanent residency, he must find paid job in Australia. He came across to one of the migration agent’s advertisements on Gumtree. The advertisement was claiming they have helped a lot of students and guaranteed RSMS visa.

Vikash called this agent and arranged a meeting at Agent’s office in Sydney. Agent asked Vikash to pay $31,000 to get him sponsorship as well as Visa. Vikash paid $31,000 in 3 instalments. Vikash is from middle-class family so he borrowed the money from his friends as well as cash out from his credit card.

Once the money was received, the agent started ignoring his calls. Vikash searched on google about that agent and came to know this agent was arrested for fraud case couple of years back. As per Vikash one of his friends has also lost money in this scam.

Vikash is helpless now. He has filed a complaint against the agent and still waiting for his refund. As per Vikash, It is very unlikely he will get a refund from the agent.

Let’s all we hope Vikash will get his money back.

For all new migrants and newcomers. Fraud happens everywhere and it happens in Australia too. So please be careful especially when there is money involved.

You should take below steps:

• Always google for any business before buying their service
• Google company name, CEO name, Phone number. Sometimes business man files bankrupt for a company and starts new company so if you search CEO name or phone number you may find about their old company if any
• If you are victim Complain to Police as well as Fair Trading department
• Always keep receipt of all transaction and emails correspondence

How to Identify bogus/unlicenced agent:

• you are asked to pay upfront, and no receipt is provided
• the fee seems extremely high
• the ‘agent’ does not give you a contract or statement of services and fees
• no Migration Agents Registration Number (MARN) is advertised