Scammers are preying on visa hopefuls from the Indian subcontinent and China with the promise of visas, ready jobs with high salaries and short work hours in the fruit-picking and livestock industries.

DIBP has issued a statement that, “[DIBP has] become aware of a fraudulent website work4australia.com that claims to provide genuine migration services to Australia.

“The scam is an offer of a five-year eVisa with a USD4700 fee. It directs individuals to travel to Thailand, where a representative from the supposed organisation receives the payment and provides travel documents to Australia," notes the DIBP statement.

The website was registered sometime in April this year with the registrant listed as Alexndar Kriss according to the domain checking service whois.com. I tried calling the number but there was only an automated answering service response requiring my details be left behind for a callback.

More tell-tale signs of the scam were street address listed as follows: “Stree-11 / Town Point 90 Sippy Downs Dr, Sippy Downs QLD 4556, Queens Land Australia “

The website provides seven images of people representing various nationalities all of whom except the registrant are without surnames. None are registered migration agents. (http://work4australia.com/contact.php)

Unregistered migration practice is illegal and prospective visa applicants should do a simple name check on https://www.mara.gov.au/ before engaging the services of anyone purporting to provide migration advice.

For further information of various type of migration scams uncovered please refer to the following DIBP website: http://www.immi.gov.au/migration-fraud/migration-related-scams.htm