How to avoid becoming a victim of intermediaries in the Green Card Lottery

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Now the busiest time for everyone who dreams of America is filling out forms to participate in the lottery. Work is also in full swing for intermediaries who offer their assistance in filling out questionnaires. And it’s good if the synonym for the word “intermediary” does not turn out to be “fraudster,” otherwise those who so counted on help will have to hear: “If you don’t pay, you won’t see America!”

Despite the fact that the application form for participation in the draw Green Card simple and even those who do not know English can cope with it (for example, ForumDaily gave very detailed instructions), some still seek intermediaries. People who are intimidated by the stories that because of the comma, which is not put there, you can drop out of the game, fall for the skillful tricks of dishonest middlemen.

How to protect yourself from fraudsters

Seasoned nostalgic smile after reading these points, but for beginners, these rules will help avoid serious financial losses:

• Lottery Officials Green card does not exist.
• Participate in the lottery Diversity Visa can only be once a year.
• The only official site for the registration of lottery applications Green Card is www.dvlottery.state.gov.
• Registration and participation in the lottery for free.

"Official" representatives

The number of intermediary firms is growing in direct proportion to the high desire of our compatriots to emigrate to America. They do not invent anything new, but act according to long-established schemes. The winner of one of these schemes was Yaroslav, the winner DV Lottery-2009: "I was one hundred percent sure that I filled out the form on the official website of the lottery “representatives” in our country. A friend encouraged me to apply, and he sent me the link. Everything was free - that’s why I thought it was official.”

Yaroslav filled out the form back in 2007, when the lottery was only electronic for the second year, and scammers were just getting their teeth into the issue of high technology. The site on which he filled out the form is still operating successfully and, moreover, ranks first in the search engine.

Together with Yaroslav we study the website of the intermediary company and see that it looks very similar to the official resource, but at the bottom you can find information about the company, which states that they provide “qualified assistance to immigrants entering the United States as part of the program Diversity Immigrant Visa". On the main page is all about the lottery: opportunities, benefits, happy stories of winners.

Remember! The official site does not share any happy stories, much less publish photos of the winners.

For greater importance, the developers of the site came up with a chip: by clicking on “fill in the questionnaire”, a waiting window appears, saying that in a couple of seconds you will “go to the website of the American company [....], thereby you will be under US jurisdiction.” Original. Everything is aimed at ensuring that we are on the official website for registration in the lottery Green Card.

Screenshot of the site of the intermediary company

Why all this masquerade? Yaroslav shares his story:

“The fact that these were not official representatives, and I sent the questionnaire with my data into the hands of scammers, I did not yet understand. A year later they called me and told me about the win. The joy did not last long. I decided to personally check my status and, having searched on the Internet how to do this, I realized that something was wrong - I needed Confirmation number.

By calling the number at which 10 was told me about the winnings a few minutes ago, I asked me to dictate my data. Saying that this was not a telephone conversation, I was invited to the office.

The very next day I was informed: in order to get a visa, I must pay a consular fee, a medical examination and expenses. Everyone smiled sweetly, were polite and sweet, told scary stories about how, because of one wrong comma in a document, a visa was denied and offered to sign a contract, about 30 pages long. I was only 19 years old, and quickly reading between the lines, I, without hesitation, I signed everything.”

Photos from personal archive

Returning home and nAfter spending a couple of hours on the forums, Yaroslav realized that he was “on the money.” I carefully read the contract - the costs were $1500. Yaroslav hoped that for a smaller amount he could buy his Confirmation number and have to do the rest myself, but it was not there.

“The company demanded $5000 for it, arguing that the contract had been signed,” recalls Yaroslav. “There was nothing to do, after paying fifteen hundred and collecting the necessary documents, I still successfully passed the interview. Of course, now this amount does not seem like such a lot of money. But still, I had to pay off debts for a long time for my move to America.”

Price for services called in advance

Journalist ForumDaily decided to personally check how it works, and turned to the very company that almost 10 years ago was ready to sell it to Yaroslav Confirmation number for 5000 dollars.

“Registration is absolutely free,” the girl consultant began with trump cards, “we cannot guarantee winnings, but we can guarantee high-quality and error-free filling out of the form. By participating through our company, you agree that if you win, you will use our services. The cost of our guaranteed assistance is $1350.”

As you can see, inflation not only did not affect this business, but on the contrary, the amount was less on 150 dollars. As for Confirmation number, which I, as a client, would like to have at my disposal - here the company’s policy has not changed - they offered to continue this non-telephone conversation if they win when signing the contract.

Lottery business

Nowadays, many companies have opened that, for a small amount, will fill out a form for you on the official lottery website. The cost of such a service is $30-45, and they promise to immediately give you all the data so you can check the results yourself. But you should not expect that for this amount you will receive a full package of services. Moreover, you should also be careful here.

Elena, who won the lottery in 2014, says that she was very afraid of making a mistake when filling out the form: “I turned to a girl who won the lottery a couple of years ago and remotely helped people like me. She filled it out for me quickly and for only $35. After winning, I was recommended to a local company. They really did everything themselves, I didn’t fill out anything, I didn’t translate any documents. But the services provided were still of poor quality, considering that I paid $1000. They forgot to warn me about the medical examination, they didn’t tell me what certificates were needed, they didn’t advise me about the interview with the consul, so I had to spend money on assistants again and again to bring the matter to the end.”

Photos from personal archive

If you decide to contact the assistant, be sure to specify:

• will you be provided with registration confirmation, including Confirmation number, by which you will find out the lottery results on the official website;
• can you fill out a questionnaire with you (if you live in another city, then ask to follow the process online);
• how much the service will cost and whether you will still have to pay something after the win;
• whether you can refuse the services of the company in case of winning.

And be sure to read the reviews on the company on the Internet, perhaps someone has already fallen for the tricks of unscrupulous intermediaries.

Recently, the forums are discussing the popular scheme of fraud: the intermediary fills in the form, gives you the wrong Confirmation number, and in the case of your win, extort up to 10 000 $.

Yuri Silantev, who has been trying to win a green card for more than five years, encountered this type of fraud. Twice he was lucky - his wife was on the list of winners, but the number was so large that the family did not have time to go through the interview. Last year, Yuri decided to try his luck himself and turned to an intermediary: “I paid only $30, received a number and waited for the results, and when I started checking, it turned out that the number they gave me was incorrect. They asked for $500 for the correct number, I immediately agreed - I can afford that amount. But two days later, when I had to transfer money, I was informed that I had won, and my number was very close, and now, since my number won, Confirmation number will cost not 500 dollars, but 3000 for each family member mentioned in the questionnaire.”

Yuri almost fell for this trick, he says that the amount is real for him, and he believed in winning, but his wife stopped him. Now he is wondering whether he won that lottery or not. But he made a reasonable conclusion: “I’ll invite a translator, and he will fill out the form with me. At least there will be a guarantee that you won’t have to buy your number from anyone.”

Read also on ForumDaily:

Full official instructions in Russian, how to fill out the form on the lottery Green Card 2020

Lottery Green Card 2019: October 18 re-starts accepting applications. What you need to know

Immigration in the USA - how not to fall for the scam

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