FUARK! Need Identity Theft Protection for my parents...(pls help)



Paper_Chase said:
My parents are travelling to India soon. They have to apply for and get a tourist VISA before they can go. They usually apply in-person at the VISA office and get it done. Somehow my mom ended up on a site that lets you apply online. The site is https://india-visa.co/index.php and she found it via Google Adwords.

They submitted all personal details, aswell as $90 credit card payment to submit the application. They go to the VISA office today to pick it up and the guy says they were scammed from this website, it isn't legit, and close to 10% of the people who come in were scammed by it.

My concern is, with all the information that they submitted about themselves, including a headshot (..fml), they would be prime targets for Identity Theft. Someone could easily create a passport with all the info they gathered, plus other scary chit I don't even know about.

I'm going to get my Dad's credit card cancelled, but is there anything I can do about the potential Identity Theft? Are any of those online monitoring services any good?

Any help is appreciated. Thanks bros.

PS: We are all based in Canada, and my parents have Canadian passports.
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Brian Krebs just did a good review of credit monitoring services:
Are Credit Monitoring Services Worth It? — Krebs on Security

Not sure if Canada applies to this, but in the US, you'd want to put freeze your parents credit:
Consumers Union’s Guide to Security Freeze Protection | Defend Your Dollars
 
Thanks for your help everyone. I've notified the following people about their fraudulent activity:

-Canadian anti fraud centre
-Interpol (since this is a UK company scamming people in Canada, Australia, and India)
-The remote office company they use (Flexible Serviced Offices, Virtual Office Services, Telephone Answering Services and Meeting Rooms)
-The merchant account provider (Realex Payments - Home)
-Domain registrar (Resell Domain Names, Resell SSL Certificates, Resell Email, Reseller Website | Domainbox)
-Website host (https://www.123-reg.co.uk/)
-ICANN

I may not stop the scam, but hopefully I can disrupt their business at least and cause them some headaches.

Anyone else I should contact?
 
This is weird. If the purpose of the site is bulk identity theft obviously for the purpose of packaging and selling the info, why even waste time having a merchant account to collect the extra few hundred dollars a day?

You could also try contacting their site, posing as a potential customer with a question, to see what kind of response you get. Could attach a pdf of your "drivers license" that is actually a RAT and see how much information you can gather from their system.
 
o hai guyz said:
This is weird. If the purpose of the site is bulk identity theft obviously for the purpose of packaging and selling the info, why even waste time having a merchant account to collect the extra few hundred dollars a day?

You could also try contacting their site, posing as a potential customer with a question, to see what kind of response you get. Could attach a pdf of your "drivers license" that is actually a RAT and see how much information you can gather from their system.
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I'm assuming they aren't actually using the personal info. The main source of income is just the $90 application fee. However, there is a huge risk of identity theft.
 
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