JERUSALEM, March 9, 2011 (WAFA)- The U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem advised on Wednesday the public of a notable increase in fraudulent emails and letters sent to Diversity Immigrant Visa (DV) program (Visa Lottery) applicants.
In a press release, the Consulate said: The scammers behind these fraudulent emails and letters are posing as the U.S. Government in an attempt to extract payment from DV applicants.
In a recent DV scam, an email instructs recipients to send money via Western Union to a fictitious person at the U.S. Embassy in London. If you have received this email, you have been targeted by con artists. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES should money be sent to any address for participation in the DV Lottery. The only official way to receive status updates is through the DV program website at
www.dvlottery.state.gov . Entrants will also not be asked to send money to the Kentucky Consular Center (KCC) or any U.S. embassy or consulate. All application fees will be paid at the time of the individual’s interview at the U.S. embassy or consulate.
DV entrants for DV-2011 can check their status online through the U.S. Department of State secure online site, http://www.dvlottery.state.gov , until June 2011. Entrants who completed online DV-2012 entries will not receive notification letters from the KCC. Rather, they must check the status of their entries themselves through the Entrant Status Check available at http://www.dvlottery.state.gov between May 1, 2011, and June 30, 2012.
Complaints about unwanted e-mails that appear to be DV scams may be submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. For more information on filing a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice go to www.usdoj.gov/spam.htm . All applicants for the DV program should be familiar with information about DV scams compiled by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission website: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/alerts/alt003.shtm . .
Applicants are encouraged to review the rules and procedures for the DV program so that they know what to expect, when to expect it, and from whom. More information about the DV program is available at www.dvlottery.state.gov .
