Warning signs detected
25-year-old Austrian visa service charging fees for free US government applications, with 593 complaints and mixed Trustpilot reviews.
Is usafis.org legit or a scam?
25-year-old Austrian visa service charging fees for free US government applications, with 593 complaints and mixed Trustpilot reviews.
USAFIS is a legitimate Austrian company that charges fees for US visa and green card lottery help that the government provides for free. Multiple consumer complaints accuse the service of misleading marketing and unnecessary charges. The domain is 25 years old with clean technical scans, but the business model itself draws repeated criticism.
Score breakdown
See the live page ↓These checks passed — but they don't clear the site. A clean antivirus result, valid SSL, and a calm server only mean it isn't hosting malware; they say nothing about whether the business is real. This verdict is based on the site's conduct and content, not a malware detection.
Analysis Summary
Website Preview

Automated page render — captured in a safe sandbox. What an ordinary visitor would see when loading the site. Marker positions are approximate. See full visual analysis →
Visual analysis
We capture a fresh screenshot of the live page and ask a vision model to look for scam visual patterns — fake trust badges, countdown timers, overlay pop-ups, and visual clones of legitimate brands.
Visual red flags detected in the screenshot
The website appears to be a standard commercial service provider for US visa assistance with no visible signs of malicious intent or deceptive patterns.
What our vision model saw
4 signalsProfessional layout for a visa consultancy service
Standard cookie consent banner at the bottom
Accessibility widget present on the left side
No obvious indicators of phishing or deceptive urgency tactics
Intelligence
The site presents itself as a paid immigration consultancy helping applicants with Diversity Visa and other US visa programs. The US government runs the Diversity Visa lottery at no cost on travel.state.gov, making USAFIS's paid service unnecessary for many users. Three separate review platforms contain complaints that the company uses aggressive marketing and requests credit card details for services available free elsewhere. The domain itself is 25 years old, hosted on clean infrastructure, and shows no malware or phishing detections. The combination of a legitimate long-running business with persistent consumer complaints about misleading practices places the site in the suspicious category rather than outright malicious.
Web Research Findings
Independent findings for usafis.org, including public complaints, named review sources, registration records, and look-alike-domain evidence. A missing result is shown as unverified, never converted into a clean bill of health.
- USAFIS is a private, for-profit company based in Austria that charges fees to assist with U.S. Diversity Visa (Green Card) lottery applications.
- The U.S. government provides the Diversity Visa lottery application process for free on its official website (travel.state.gov).
- The company explicitly disclaims any affiliation with the U.S. government or USCIS on its website.
- Public sentiment is polarized; some users report successful visa outcomes, while many others label the service as a scam or unnecessary, citing that the same services are available for free.
- The company has been in operation since 2001, which is significantly longer than typical short-lived scam sites.
- External reports have identified instances of lookalike domains (e.g., 'usafisnews.org') being used to impersonate the company in phishing attempts.
- Trustpilotopen
"Fraudulent. They try to convince you to pay fees which is free of charge on the official immigration page. They also ask for credit card information including your three digit security number."
- Quoraopen
"Entry on any other site is nothing more than a money making scam and provides your personal details to an organisation which will probably misuse them."
- Reviews.ioopen
"This "company" gives you the impression of being very formal and all very legal, but they are nothing more than a telemarketing structure."
- Trustpilotopen
"I like the way they take their customers applications serious. They contact them to make every mistake on their application form just to ensure that the right thing is done."
Operated by PRONET Online Marketing GmbH, Registration Number FN256018y, based in Linz, Austria.
Domain Timeline
- Jun 26, 2001Domain registered
First appeared in WHOIS records — 25 years old today.
- Jul 24, 2026Latest security review — Flagged as suspicious
This scan re-ran every check; the current findings are detailed above.
usafis.org is an established domain now carrying threat signals. An older domain that starts tripping security checks is a classic pattern for an asset that was sold, repurposed, or compromised — the age alone is not reassurance.
Threat Detection
Antivirus Engines
Security Scans
Checked against the major public blocklists used by browsers and security tools — no hits.
Reputation Sources
How this domain rates across independent threat-intelligence and blocklist providers.
Technical Details
domain · encryption · redirects · server reputation · referencedThe plumbing behind the site — who registered it, how it’s encrypted, where it’s hosted, and where it links out. A valid certificate or a calm server doesn’t mean the business is honest — scam sites pass these checks too. Use this to corroborate the verdict, not to overturn it.
Contact Verification
We fetched the page and looked for real-world contact details. Legitimate businesses almost always publish an email on their own domain, a phone number, and a postal address. Scam shops usually don't.
- No postal address visible on the page.
- Contact email on the site's own domain (csr@usafis.org).
- Phone number listed (+1-646-517-6786).
Domain & Encryption
Redirect Chain
- 1301http://usafis.org/
- 2301https://usafis.org/
- 3200https://www.usafis.org/
Server Reputation
Referenced Domains
Outbound domains this page links to or loads resources from. Each links to its own security scan.
What to do
Proceed with caution
Our automated review flagged enough risk that you should treat this site as unverified.
- Treat usafis.org as unverified
Do not enter credentials or send money until you have independently verified the business.
- Verify the business through independent channels
Check the company's social profiles, registry records, and search for recent news or reviews that are not hosted on the site itself.
- Never use irreversible payment methods
Crypto, gift cards, wire transfers, and cash apps offer zero buyer protection. Use a credit card or PayPal if you must pay.
- OpenShare your experience
If you have additional context, drop a comment below or post on the MalwareTips forum.
Final Verdict
USAFIS is a legitimate Austrian company that charges fees for US visa and green card lottery help that the government provides for free. Multiple consumer complaints accuse the service of misleading marketing and unnecessary charges. The domain is 25 years old with clean technical scans, but the business model itself draws repeated criticism.
Safety FAQ
Common questions, answered directly from the scan data above — so the answers always reflect the latest verdict on this page.
- usafis.org shows strong warning signs of being a scam site — avoid interacting with it. 2 of 92 security engines flag it (1 as outright malicious). The domain is 25.1 years old through GoDaddy.com, LLC. It may not be an outright scam, but the risk is high enough that you should verify it independently before trusting it with money or data.
- Proceed with caution — usafis.org scores 57/100 on our trust scale. We found enough warning signals to recommend verifying it through independent channels before entering credentials or money.
- If you've already paid or handed over details on usafis.org, act quickly. 1) Contact your bank or card issuer immediately and ask to dispute the charge or open a chargeback — the sooner you act, the better your odds. 2) Report the site to the U.S. FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov or the FBI's IC3 at ic3.gov, and in the UK to Action Fraud at actionfraud.police.uk. 3) If you entered a password, change it on usafis.org and anywhere you reused it, and turn on two-factor authentication. 4) Watch your bank and email for follow-up fraud, and keep screenshots as evidence.
- Often yes, if you act fast. Payments made by credit or debit card can frequently be reversed through a chargeback or dispute — contact your bank right away and explain it was a fraudulent site. Bank transfers and gift-card or voucher payments are much harder to recover, but you should still report them to your bank and to the FTC (reportfraud.ftc.gov) or Action Fraud (actionfraud.police.uk). Avoid any "refund" or "recovery" service that contacts you first — it's usually a follow-up scam.
- Just viewing a scam page is usually low-risk on an up-to-date browser — the real danger is what it asks you to DO (enter details, download a file, send money). If you downloaded anything, run a full antivirus scan and treat the file as untrusted. If you entered a password or card number, change the password everywhere you reused it and contact your bank.
- You can report usafis.org through several official channels: the U.S. FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) at ic3.gov, and — in the UK — Action Fraud at actionfraud.police.uk. You can also flag it to Google Safe Browsing (safebrowsing.google.com/safebrowsing/report_phish) so other browsers warn about it, and report it to the company being impersonated if there is one. Reporting helps get scam sites taken down faster.
- Modern scams are built to look convincing. A valid SSL padlock, a polished template, stock photos, fake reviews, and a trust badge can all be added in minutes and prove nothing about who runs the site. Scammers buy cheap domains, clone real designs, and copy legal pages wholesale. That's exactly why an automated review that checks the domain's age, hosting, blacklists, and behaviour — rather than just how the page looks — is more reliable than a first impression.
- Yes. 2 of 92 antivirus and blocklist engines in our malware network flagged usafis.org, 1 of them as outright malicious. Even a single detection from a reputable engine is a meaningful warning, and multiple detections rarely happen by accident.
- No — usafis.org is not currently on the major browser blocklist feeds that Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge rely on. Note that blocklists can lag behind brand-new scam domains, so "not listed" is reassuring but not a guarantee on its own.
- usafis.org is 25.1 years old, registered on June 26, 2001 through GoDaddy.com, LLC. A multi-year registration history is one of the stronger signals against a scam, though it's never a guarantee on its own — established domains can still be misused.
- Yes — usafis.org presents a valid TLSv1.3 certificate issued by GoDaddy.com, Inc. · Go Daddy Secure Certificate Authority - G2, valid for another 138 days. Important caveat: SSL only encrypts the connection between you and the site — it does not verify who runs it. Almost all scam sites now have valid SSL too, so a padlock alone never means "safe".
- usafis.org resolves to an IP operated by CDNetworks Inc in IL (Content Delivery Network). Hosting location alone doesn't make a site good or bad — but hosting that doesn't match a brand's claimed country, or that sits on networks known for abuse, is one of the many signals we weigh alongside the verdict above.
User reviews & comments(0)
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