By Lamin Njie
People participating in the US diversity visa program have been warned to be mindful of ‘bad actors’ who go about asking people to pay a certain amount of money before they can get a visa.
The US Diversity Visa program for 2021 is open, with winners qualifying to legally enter the US and live there permanently.
But scammers are in the business of sending emails to people interested in the program asking them to pay money for a program that is for free.
The US consular officer at the US Embassy in Dakar spoke with The Fatu Network in an exclusive interview saying the Diversity Visa Program was created in the ‘1990s’ to make sure that the US is attracting immigrants from countries that historically have a lower rate of immigration to the United States.
Parker said: “So, it’s a lottery program which participating countries, their citizens can go in and enter a lottery for a chance essentially win an immigrant visa or a green card to the United States.
“Certainly any program that has a free entry for the chance to win a residence card to the United States, a green card to the United States, is going to attract some bad actors who want to take advantage of people are interested in the program.
“So we’ve certainly seen scams in the past where these bad actors have sent emails to people or try to steal entrance data, communicate with them [and] tell them that they need to pay a lot of money before they can get a visa.
“I can absolutely tell you that anyone who receives an email that says that they won the diversity visa, is absolutely being scam. That’s a fraudulent email that should just be ignored and thrown away.
“We also would never send anyone an email asking for money. So if anyone gets an email asking for money for a green card, they can know that that’s fraudulent.”
The Diversity Visa Program for 2021 opened on October 2 and it will close on November 5. Anyone who wishes to get information or apply can go to www.dvlottery.state.gov
