Thailand's Immigration Bureau has warned travellers that websites charging a fee to file the Thailand Digital Arrival Card are fraudulent, and the reported scale of the problem is the part that should worry an agent: something like one arrival in ten is said to have gone through one of them. The card is mandatory and it is free. Every site asking for money to submit it is taking a payment for nothing — and, worse, collecting a passport and an itinerary while it does. This guide from a Thailand DMC for travel agents covers what the advisory says, why your clients are the ones being caught, and the single line in a pre-departure email that stops it.
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What the advisory actually says
The Immigration Bureau's position is short and unambiguous. Registration for the Thailand Digital Arrival Card is mandatory for foreign travellers, it is free of charge, and it is available only through the official government channel. Sites presenting themselves as authorised third-party providers and charging a processing fee are not official, and the Bureau has described them as scams exploiting arrival volumes for illegal gain.
The official route is the Immigration Bureau's own arrival-card portal at tdac.immigration.go.th. That is the address to put in front of a client. Anything else — however governmental it looks, whatever seal it displays, however high it ranks in a search — is not it.
The reported reach is what makes this a trade problem rather than a consumer curiosity. Coverage of the advisory has put the proportion of foreign arrivals who used one of these sites at roughly one in ten. On a group of forty, that is several clients who have paid for a free government form.
Why your clients specifically get caught
This is not a scam that preys on carelessness. It preys on the exact behaviour a well-briefed traveller exhibits:
- The client is told to file the arrival card and goes looking for it. A traveller who has been correctly instructed searches for the thing they were told to do — and the fraudulent sites are optimised to be what that search finds.
- Paying a fee feels normal. Travellers are used to paying for visas, for entry authorisations, for expedited processing. A charge does not read as a warning sign; it reads as government.
- The sites look right. They use official-sounding names, similar domains, and the language of an authorised service provider.
- Nobody finds out at the time. Some of these sites do submit something; some do not. Either way the client walks away believing the task is done, and the failure surfaces at a checkpoint or not at all.
The uncomfortable implication: a client who has been briefed to file the card, but not told where, is arguably at more risk than one who was never told anything. Half a briefing points them at the search results.
The damage is not the fee
Agents tend to hear "scam site" and think about the money. The money is the least of it, and framing it that way to a client understates the problem.
- The filing may be invalid or never made. Reporting on the advisory notes that submissions through unofficial channels may be improperly filed or not filed at all. A client who believes they are compliant and is not will discover it at the border, which is the worst possible place and time.
- The data is the prize. To fill in an arrival declaration a site collects full passport details, dates of birth, travel dates, flight numbers and an address in Thailand. That is an identity-theft package, handed over voluntarily, plus a precise window during which the person is known to be out of their home country.
- Card details go with it. A payment page on a fraudulent site is a payment page on a fraudulent site.
- The client blames someone. Realistically, they blame whoever sold them the trip.
So the brief to a client is not "don't waste your money". It is "do not give your passport details to anyone who asks you to pay for this".
The fix, which costs nothing
One line, in the pre-departure email, with the address written out:
Thailand requires a free digital arrival card before you travel. File it only at tdac.immigration.go.th. It is free — any site asking you to pay for it is fraudulent, and you should not give it your passport details.
Three things make that line work. It names the requirement, so the client does not go searching. It gives the address, so the client does not go searching. And it states the fee test — free means free — so the client has a rule they can apply if they end up somewhere else anyway.
Add the timing: the declaration is filed shortly before travel rather than at the moment of booking, which is why it cannot simply be done for them at the time the file is made up and then forgotten.
Groups, and the case for filing centrally
For a group, the arithmetic makes the decision. If roughly one arrival in ten has been going through a fraudulent site, a coach group will contain several — and they will be scattered through the party rather than conveniently grouped.
What works on a group file:
- Send the address, not the instruction. The difference between "file your arrival card" and "file it here" is the entire scam.
- Make it a manifest item. Somebody should be able to say who has filed and who has not, before the party is at an airport.
- Warn the tour leader specifically, because they are the person a confused client asks, and a leader who says "just search for it" undoes the briefing.
- Handle it centrally where the client is happy for you to. Filing on a traveller's behalf through the official channel removes the exposure entirely for that traveller.
If a client has already paid one of these sites, the practical advice is to file again properly through the official portal, treat the card details as compromised and speak to their bank, and watch for follow-on approaches — the data does not stop being useful to whoever collected it.
Where this sits among the other entry changes
This advisory lands while two other entry-side changes are in motion, and the combination is what makes clients vulnerable: uncertainty is exactly the condition fraudulent sites trade on. The visa-exemption revision approved by Cabinet has since been gazetted — the Interior Ministry notifications were published on 31 August 2026 and take effect on 15 September 2026 — and the status of the immigration app as a mandatory step rather than an optional front-end is still contested in reporting. Our guides to the thirty-day exemption and to the arrival card itself cover those.
The through-line for an agent is simple: while rules are moving, clients search, and searching is where they get caught. Precision in a briefing is worth more now than it is in a settled year.
What the ground partner carries here
The current official position and what is actually being asked at the desks. Which channel is live, what a checkpoint does with a client whose declaration was filed through an unofficial site, whether a group was slowed by it this week, and who to call at a mission when a traveller's filing turns out not to exist. That is ordinary Thailand DMC services for travel agents, alongside 24/7 support for the arrival that goes wrong, transfers whose drivers wait on the actual clearance rather than the scheduled one, and licensed guides for groups that need shepherding through a hall.
It also means a Thailand DMC that sends you the government address rather than a link of its own. See Bangkok and Phuket for the arrival points where most of your clients meet this, and how we work with agents in your source market on pre-departure briefings.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Thailand Digital Arrival Card free?
Yes. The Immigration Bureau has stated plainly that registration is mandatory for foreign travellers, free of charge, and available only through the official government channel. Any website asking a client to pay a processing fee to submit it is fraudulent, regardless of how official it appears or how highly it ranks in a search.
What is the official website?
The Immigration Bureau's own arrival-card portal at tdac.immigration.go.th. Put that address in the client's pre-departure email in full rather than telling them to look it up — sending a client searching is precisely how they reach a fraudulent site.
How widespread is the problem?
Coverage of the advisory has put the share of foreign arrivals who used one of these sites at roughly one in ten. For the trade that turns it from a consumer-interest story into a group-file issue, because a coach party will statistically contain several affected travellers scattered through it.
What is the actual risk to a client?
Not primarily the fee. The submission may be improperly filed or never made, so a client can believe they are compliant and discover otherwise at the border. And the site collects full passport details, dates of birth, flight numbers and a Thai address — an identity-theft package, together with a precise window when the person is away from home. Card details entered on the payment page go the same way.
What should a client do if they have already paid one?
File again properly through the official portal so the declaration genuinely exists, treat the card details as compromised and contact their bank, and stay alert to follow-up approaches using the data that was handed over. Filing twice does no harm; assuming the first filing worked can.
Can we file it for clients?
Where the client is content for you to, filing through the official channel on their behalf removes the exposure for that traveller entirely. For groups it is worth treating the declaration as a manifest item so somebody can say who has filed before the party reaches an airport. Send us your group arrival dates at b2b@explera.co.th and we will tell you what is being asked at the desks that week.
Briefing clients while Thailand's entry rules are in motion? Talk to our trade desk and we will give you wording that is current for your travel dates.
