The cruel new travel scam ruining Aussie holidays before they even start

As international travel returns to full swing, cybercriminals have found a new way to ruin holiday plans.

Travel visa and passport scams have skyrocketed in Australia, with identity security specialists IDCARE reporting a 76 per cent surge in fraudulent activity last year.

These scams pose as legitimate government websites, masquerading as passport renewal or visa and entry waiver application hubs.

They're often the first website listed in an online search, as many pay a premium to be among the "sponsored results".

In this digital underworld, personal information is harvested, bank accounts are drained and holiday plans are ruined.

An 83-year-old British-Australian dual citizen recently experienced this heartbreak firsthand.

Elizabeth was preparing for a bittersweet journey to the United Kingdom to visit her 102-year-old aunt, when she applied to renew her passport on a scam site that was almost identical to the legitimate portal.

The fake site, www.british-passport-renewal.uk, looks almost as legitimate as the real site www.gov.uk/renew-adult-passport. For most people, the URL does not raise a red flag signalling fraud.

The consequences for the traveller were catastrophic. The scammers, posing as embassy staff, demanded detailed copies of sensitive documents in regular late-night phone calls.

Elizabeth delayed her flights twice while waiting for her passport to be renewed, and in desperation, she went directly to the British Embassy.

That's when she learnt that she had not been in conversation with consular staff, she had been dealing with grifters.

A National Anti-Scam Centre spokesperson said scammers were creating professional-looking websites that impersonated trusted government services, including travel visa and passport services.

For those who have encountered a visa or passport scam site, Scamwatch collects user reports. The National Anti-Scam Centre then uses these reports to identify and disrupt criminal activity.

If in doubt, the Australian Government's Smartraveller provides web links to legitimate visa sites in each of the country's profiles.