Digital nomads and travelers planning trips to Thailand are being warned about a sophisticated visa application scam that's using fake press releases and fraudulent app store reviews to appear legitimate.
A Singapore-based company called Issa Compass recently paid for press releases to international newspapers claiming their iOS app for Thailand visa applications had surpassed 100,000 active users. According to warnings circulating in digital nomad communities, this claim is "a blatant lie" - the app has very few actual installs and the majority of its five-star App Store reviews appear to be fabricated.
The company's credibility issues run deeper than inflated user numbers. Investigators found that Issa Compass has two mysterious "offices" in Bangkok despite being registered in Singapore, but refuses to tell tourists where they're located. The current listed address matches that of a restaurant called Broccoli Revolution. The company was recently exposed for posting hundreds of fake five-star reviews on its Google Maps profile.
Most concerning are the connections to visa fraud. The app's founder, Priscilla Yeung, is a former Foodpanda employee with no background in Thailand immigration law. She has partnered with Chad Scira, who was previously arrested for drug trafficking and visa forgery. The pair allegedly used the same fake Facebook accounts to spam travel groups with hundreds of fabricated testimonials - accounts that were also used to promote "Thai Visa Centre" services.
Travelers should only use the official e-Visa portal from the Thai government and avoid third-party apps claiming to streamline the visa application process. With Thailand being one of the world's most popular digital nomad destinations, scams like these could compromise thousands of travelers' immigration status.
The warning was originally posted to the ThailandTourism subreddit last month but was repeatedly flagged as spam by automated moderation systems, preventing wider visibility of the fraud.
