USCIS Warning - Email Scam: Avoid Green Card Lottery Fraud

Have you or someone you know recently received an e-mail claiming you’ve won the Green Card lottery and asking you to send or wire money?

Don’t fall for it – the sender is trying to steal your money!

Fraudsters will frequently e-mail potential victims posing as State Department or other government officials with requests to wire or transfer money online as part of a “processing fee.” You should never transfer money to anyone who e-mails you claiming that you have won the Diversity Visa (DV) lottery or been selected for a Green Card.

These e-mails are designed to steal money from unsuspecting victims. The senders often use phony e-mail addresses and logos designed to make them look more like official government correspondence. One easy way to tell they are a fraud is that the e-mail address does not end with a “.gov”.   

According to the Department of State website:

Entrants who completed online DV 2011 entries between October 2, 2009 and November 30, 2009 and who were selected in the random drawing are notified by the Department of State's Kentucky Consular Center by letter.  Entrants can also check the status of their entries by returning to the DV website at http://www.dvlottery.state.gov from July 1, 2010 until June 30, 2011.  Entrants will need to use the information from their DV 2011 confirmation page they saved at the time of DV entry.

Entrants who completed online DV 2012 entries will not receive notification letters from the Kentucky Consular Center.  Instead, they must check the status of their entries by returning to the DV website at http://www.dvlottery.state.gov on or after May 1, 2011 through June 30, 2012.

The Kentucky Consular Center will not e-mail notifications to DV entrants informing them of their winning entry.  No other organization or private company is authorized by the Department of State to notify Diversity Visa lottery applicants of their winning entry, or the next steps in the process of applying for their visa.

For more information about the Diversity Visa Program, including important DV Instructions, see http://www.dvlottery.state.gov/ and review the Department of State’s Travel.State.Gov DV Instructions webpage.

For more information on this type of fraud and how to avoid and report it, please see the Department of State’s fraud warning and the Federal Trade Commission’s consumer alert on the matter.

For more about this warning from USCIS, please visit The Beacon.

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