US Embassy warns of visa scams

Port-of-Spain: The United States' Embassy in Port-of-Span is warning citizens to beware of an e-mail scam involving fake information on US visas.

Reports are that an e-mail scam has been uncovered in which unsuspecting persons are sent information suggesting that they have won a visa in the US Diversity Lottery System and need to send money to process the visa.

However Christy Machak, the Immigrant Visa Chief at the US Embassy said today that there is a clear process for the US Lottery System and that persons should not fall prey to the e-mail scam. Machak says persons who are lucky enough to be randomly selected under the visa lottery system would never be asked to send money anywhere and as such should avoid doing so.

She added that the US Embassy only uses "dot-gov" web addresses, while the scams usually carry "dot-com" addresses.