A group of seven applicants who were carrying forged documents to apply for visas to Italy were caught by two security personnel members at VFS Global, the Visa Application Center (VAC) in Delhi, India.
As TravelDailyMedia reports, such documents were allegedly provided to the applicants by two Delhi-based agents in exchange for INR 30,000 to 55,000, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
During the investigation, the security personnel discovered that the visa appointment papers produced by the applicants upon entering the facility were forged. The personnel further pointed out that the forged papers were created by the fraudsters by faking the logo of VFS Global.
Following VFS Global’s zero-tolerance policy against visa fraud, a police complaint was lodged at the IGI Airport Metro police station in Delhi.
In this regard, Chief Operating Officer – South Asia, VFS Global Prabuddha Sen pointed out that this incident once again shows the need to be careful of grey operators who try to sell fake appointments and to make informed decisions.
According to him, VFS Global has always used all the contact points of its customers in order to take care of visa applicants against these threats. Sen said that on a first-come, first-served basis, appointments are free and available online as well.
“Given the unprecedented pent-up demand for outbound travel from India, it is advisable to apply for visas as early as possible to avoid falling prey to such grey operators,” he also noted.
At the same time, Sen emphasized that the company will continue to oppose all fraudulent third-party entities that take advantage of travellers and will cooperate with police authorities in mitigating such cases.
Furthermore, all travellers applying for a visa are required to beware of fraudulent entities that charge fees to clients for making appointments or providing any other service using the name of VFS Global.
VFS Global is the world’s largest specialist in visa issuance and technology services for governments and diplomatic missions around the world. As a result, the company manages administrative and non-judicial tasks related to visa, passport and consular services for its client governments.
It also serves the interests of 67 client governments and has a total of 3,388 application centres and operations in 145 countries on five continents. Since the beginning of its operation in 2001, the same has successfully processed over 261 million applications and over 119.09 million biometric registrations from 2007.