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If something here looks wrong, we want to know - and if it is serious, so does a regulator with more power than us.
Tell us
이메일 trust@visabid.io with the agent name or case reference and what happened. We read every one. If a provider has broken the Code or our rules we suspend them, and if money is held on the platform we freeze it while we look.
If you are in an engagement, raising a dispute from the engagement page is faster and freezes the funds immediately.
Go straight to a regulator if
- Someone unregistered is charging you. Report to the Australian Border Force - this is a criminal offence carrying up to ten years imprisonment, and OMARA has no power over people who are not registered.
- A registered agent has behaved badly. Complain to OMARA.
- A lawyer has behaved badly. Complain to the legal services commissioner in their state or territory.
- You were asked to provide false documents. Report it. Doing so is an offence for you as well as for them, and it can end your migration prospects permanently.
If you have already lost money elsewhere
Report it anyway, even if you are embarrassed, even if you paid in cash, and even if you are worried about your own visa status. Migration fraud runs on the assumption that its victims will stay quiet.
Where to report, with the actual links
| What happened | Who to tell |
|---|---|
| Someone not registered charged you for immigration assistance | Australian Border Force — report suspicious activity. This is a criminal offence under section 280 of the Migration Act. OMARA has no power over someone who is not registered, so reporting it there achieves nothing. |
| A registered migration agent behaved badly | OMARA complaints. They can caution, suspend or cancel a registration. They cannot get your money back. |
| A lawyer behaved badly | The legal services commissioner in their state or territory — NSW, VIC, QLD, WA. Others are listed by each state law society. |
| 귀하 lost money to a scam | Scamwatch, and your bank immediately — some transfers can still be recalled in the first day or two. |
| You want the money back | Your state consumer affairs body or a small claims tribunal. The Australian Consumer Law guarantees apply to migration services and cannot be contracted out of. See getting your money back. |
What to put in a report
Reports that go nowhere are usually the ones with nothing attached. Before you write, gather:
- Every name used, the business name, and any MARN or registration number quoted to you.
- What you paid, when, and how. Bank transfers, receipts, screenshots of a payment app.
- The messages. WhatsApp, email, Facebook, anything. Export rather than screenshot where you can, and do it now rather than later — accounts get deleted.
- What you were told would happen, in their words.
- Any document lodged in your name, and whether you saw it before it went in.
Two things people worry about, answered plainly
“Will reporting hurt my own visa?” Being the victim of an unregistered operator is not itself a breach of anything by you. The situation that genuinely does carry consequences is a false document in your application, whoever put it there, because PIC 4020 can bar you for ten years. That is a reason to get proper advice quickly, not a reason to stay quiet.
“Can I report anonymously?” The ABF and Scamwatch accept anonymous reports. OMARA generally needs to identify the complainant to act on a complaint about a registered agent, because the agent has to be able to answer it.
Before you engage anyone else
Ten seconds now is worth more than any of the above. Run our operator check, and look the person up yourself on the OMARA register. Both are free, and neither requires you to trust us about anything.