On 20 July the Consulate-General of India in São Paulo issued an urgent advisory after detecting a spike in fraudulent portals masquerading as the Government of India’s e-Visa platform. The notice lists domains such as e-touristvisaindia.com and indianvisaonline.org.in, which scrape official logos and charge inflated fees while harvesting passport data. Officials emphasise that the only legitimate URL for all e-Visa categories—including e-Tourist and e-Business—is Applicants are urged to bookmark the site and avoid intermediaries. The Consulate reports multiple cases of Brazilian travellers arriving in India with invalid PDFs, forcing them to purchase new visas on arrival and, in some instances, face denied boarding. Cyber-security experts note that phishing groups are targeting inbound markets where demand for India is rebounding—Latin America saw a 34 % year-on-year rise in Indian tourist arrivals in Q2 2026. The fake sites exploit Google Ads to appear above the official link and charge service “premiums” of up to US$150. For multinational travel managers, the advisory is a reminder to embed whitelists of approved government URLs in corporate booking tools and traveller briefings. Payment-card teams should also watch for chargebacks linked to scam visa sites. The MEA is working with CERT-In to takedown rogue domains and has asked airlines to circulate the advisory during ticket purchase flows—mirroring the outreach planned for India’s Trusted Traveller Programme. Until takedowns gain traction, applicants should rely on mission websites (.gov.in domains) for direct links to Indian e-Visa services.
