Beware of the ESTA Scam for the US Non Visa Waiver Program

The last time I was in the US a few months ago I was told that the grace period for the new ESTA US Non Visa Waiver program would expire in a few months. Because that time was not up, I did not apply.

While this is true the US Department of Immigration in addition requires all Air New Zealand travellers to use the ESTA program. So on attempting to board we had to apply. No problem.

I searched for “us visa waiver australians” and up came three “Sponsored Links”

  1. ESTA Application Website

    www.estaaustralia.org Welcome to the U.S. ESTA Application Website.

  2. ESTA Application Website

    www.ESTA-au.org Welcome to the U.S. ESTA Application Website.

  3. Australian Travel Advice

    www.smartraveller.gov.au Check out the information that is not in your guidebook before you go

I filled out the applications on the first link. AUD53 payment was required for each which I provided by credit card.

Then back to the check-in counter. The applications had not come through which was strange. Then they said there is no fee. Finally they have leaflets for the site you are meant to use which is https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov

This smelt like a scam. Air New Zealand rang the US Consulate who confirmed that I had not been registered, and then pointed out that I didn’t need to be because the grace period was not over 🙂

Final call was to the Commonwealth Bank to cancel my credit card and dispute the payments. A fun boarding.

By Greg Luck

As Terracotta’s CTO, Greg (@gregrluck) is entrusted with understanding market and technology forces and the business drivers that impact Terracotta’s product innovation and customer success. He helps shape company and technology strategy and designs many of the features in Terracotta’s products. Greg came to Terracotta on the acquisition of the popular caching project Ehcache which he founded in 2003. Prior to joining Terracotta, Greg served as Chief Architect at Australian online travel giant Wotif.com. He also served as a lead consultant for ThoughtWorks on accounts in the United States and Australia, was CIO at Virgin Blue, Tempo Services, Stamford Hotels and Resorts and Australian Resorts and spent seven years as a Chartered Accountant in KPMG’s small business and insolvency divisions. He is a regular speaker at conferences and contributor of articles to the technical press.