The real name is “Diversity Visa Lottery Program”
We were trolling for seedy stuff today and found a URL in a Twitter post that looked promising:
A Russian porn download site. OK, we’ll give it a try:
The site opened a second browser window with this: “U.S. Program of Green Card Lottery – Year 2010.”
Green card scams have been around for a while. They charge hopeful immigrants to fill out applications that are free from the actual U.S. State Department site (link below).
We dug around a bit further and found their prices, which are pretty stiff for something that is free from the U.S. Department of State:
(click on graphic to enlarge)
The real U.S. State Department Diversity Lottery page is here.
It contains the following:
“Fraud Warning
“Please Note: There have been instances of fraudulent websites posing as official U.S. Government sites. Some companies posing as the U.S. Government have sought money in order to “complete” lottery entry forms. There is no charge to download and complete the Electronic Diversity Visa Entry Form. The Department of State notifies successful Diversity Visa applicants by letter, and NOT by e-mail. To learn more see the Department of State Warning and the Federal Trade Commission Warning.”
A Google search for “green card lottery” turned up hits for a load of them
We blogged about green card lottery phishing spam last month.
Tom Kelchner