We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, emails to diversity visa program "winners" requesting money are indeed frauds.  No payment of any kind is required until the U.S. government visa interview process actually begins. I get communications from lottery entrants here in New Mexico and abroad each day questioning these emails, and United States Consulates are putting out press releases on the same topic every week.

THE SCAM. Here is a typical fraudulent email directed to a foreign student in Albuquerque, allegedly from the U.S. State Department. It requests a payment of $880 by Western Union delivered to a United Kingdom address.

This green card lottery scam is now an ongoing worldwide epidemic, perpetrated by persons unknown with the goal to extract fees from unwitting email recipients who entered the lottery within the past two years. Designed to fool lottery entrants into believing they won a United States diversity visa, it is reminiscent of the infamous scam where victims are lured to provide upfront money in exchange for rights to millions of dollars deposited in their account on behalf of a Nigerian government or bank official.

Most of those victimized in this scam are one of the 15 million lottery entrants with little understanding of English who most likely can least afford the loss of $880.

HOW IT STARTED. This scam may have started when the U.S. State Department, in a noble effort to reduce postal mail inefficiency and corruption, could have unwittingly unleashed yet more fraud. It happened like this:  First, the U.S. State Department abruptly ended the practice of mailing white envelopes with instructions to winners beginning with the calendar year 2010 green card lottery (DV-2012).  This was done for a variety of reasons stemming from mail delivery problems in many third world countries.

This process of passively notifying winners by postal mail was replaced last year with an online-only system in which lottery applicants can enter their name, birth date and confirmation number to find out if they won. (The confirmation number is provided to each applicant as a receipt after they successfully register during the open registration period in October.)

Since the notification system is so new and many applicants have poor English, many may translate or confuse the phrase "electronic entrant status check" and wrongly expect to be notified by email. Of course this is not a the case. Winners are only notified by visiting a website and entering their personal data after a delay of 5-6 months. So, when a fraudulent email finally arrives they may forget or be confused and are then easily victimized.

OTHER PROBLEMS. This latest green card lottery scam is compounded by the State Department’s tendency to change the dates of the lottery every year. For example, in 2010 they changed the open registration period from 60 days to a mere 30 days. Even worse, they fail to notify the public of these changes until the very last minute -- usually a few weeks before the start of the lottery.

The agency responsible for administering the lottery, the Kentucky Consular Center in Lewisburg, Kentucky still enshrouds their operations in a veil of secrecy by failing to provide clear, timely, and more detailed statistics or respond to FOIA requests (but that is another story).

While legislators continue to punt on common sense comprehensive immigration reform they also play political football with the diversity visa lottery.  One idea that might address several issues at once is to update lottery rules to encourage certain trades and/or educational levels. 

DV-2011 ENTRANTS can still check if they won the calendar year 2009 green card lottery until April 30, 2011. Just visit the official Department of State Entry Status Check website at http://www.dvlottery.state.gov/ESC/ and provide the data listed above. Calendar year 2009 entrants were also notified by postal mail between May and July of 2010 (for the last time).

If a lottery entrant lost his or her confirmation number they can contact the Kentucky Consular Center via email at: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , or attempt to reach them at their busy telephone number: +1-606-526-7500.

DV-2012 ENTRANTS can check the status of their entry beginning May 1, 2011 at the same web site.  Calendar year 2010 (and 2011) entrants will not be notified by postal mail.

DV-2013 ENTRANTS. This year, if you use a reputable lottery service or attorney to help you with your entry, they should always provide you with your confirmation number from the U.S. government. But they can only provide your official confirmation number after they register your entry during the open registration period in October.

As far as the scam is concerned,  these emails are just spam. And remember P.T. Barnum's words:

There ‘s a sucker born every minute.