New Visa Scam

First of all there is hardly a nation on earth where one cannot obtain his/her own visa without the necessity of any kind of intermediary. Most nations immigration authority websites also have clear warnings that so-called immigrations consultants or agents do very little and certainly nothing that one could not do for themselves for free. Even developed nations place few restrictions on these agents and for the most part they do a very poor job a policing themselves so scams and frauds are common.

My advice to anyone wanting to obtain a visa, anywhere, would be to contact the Embassy or Consulate nearest them and inform themselves about the application process. In most cases it's much simpler than you would imagine. If anyone makes statements that sound too good to be true, chances are that's because it's too good to be true! I also firmly believe that the vast majority of people who end up with a fake visa knew right from the beginning that was exactly what they were paying for.

So the simple answer, to your question.... how can you tell you're getting a real tourist visa or a fake? Apply for it yourself directly through the Consulate. You're guaranteed that it will be genuine if you do that.

Cheers,
William James Woodward, Expat-blog Experts Team

Did you read my question?  "He did this personally at the BI office in Manila and not through a fixer."

Note that he is already in the Philippines extending his tourist visa, so why would he go to his own consulate to get a Philippines visa? He went to the Manila BoI and was scammed.

I was not talking about his own Embassy... my comment was directed to anyone applying for a visa anywhere in the world. This is done through the Consulate or Embassy of the nation they intend to travel to.

If your friend arrived in the Philippines using a Visa Waiver Program nation passport then was given a visa stamp at the airport it most certainly was genuine. If someone else at the BoI office said it wasn't they're obviously mistaken or the issuing officer didn't enter the information into the computer system as should have happened. Why in the world would an immigrations officer at an airport be using a false visa stamp since there is nothing for him to gain by doing such a thing and how in the world would somebody else know it was fake stamp or not just by looking at it?

Sorry to sound like a sceptic but I've been helping members with visa related issues here for years and I find something lacking in this whole story. Sounds more like a crooked officer at the BoI office trying to work a scam on your friend, wanting a few extra $$$$ in order to resolve the "problem" for him.