THE US embassy in Dublin has warned Irish residents about a widespread visa lottery scam.
Reports of fraudulent e-mails, websites and advertisements offering visa services are on the rise and the embassy has urged people to be cautious when using private third parties to aid them in their visa applications.
The diversity visa programme offers up to 55,000 visa slots annually for people who wish to apply for immigration to the US.
It is run by the US department of state; no other organisation has been authorised to notify applicants of their successful entries or the next steps in the process of applying for their immigrant visas.
Many private websites offer legitimate services to assist individuals in applying for visas, but others claim to provide visa services as a cover for scams or identity theft.
The embassy has also advised that images of US emblems such as flags, eagles, monuments or official seals do not necessarily indicate a US government website.
Only a domain name of .gov ensures a website is a legitimate US government site where the information is free and up to date.
The sole official way to register for the diversity visa programme is directly through the official US department of state website.
Under no circumstances should anyone send any money to any address for participation in the diversity visa lottery, the embassy says. One widespread scam e-mail instructs recipients to send money via Western Union to a fictitious person at the US embassy in London. “If you have received this e-mail, you have been targeted by con artists” read an embassy statement released yesterday.
Diversity visa entrants for 2011 can check the status of their entries at dvlottery.state.gov until June 30th, 2011. Entrants will not be asked to send money to any US embassy or consulate.
Complaints about unwanted e-mails that may be scams can be sent to the US department of justice at usdoj.gov/spam.htm.