How to Identify a Fraudulent Green Card Lottery Website

People from around the world often ask us:
How to Identify a Fraudulent Green Card Lottery Website

Knowing how to identify a fraudulent Green Card Lottery website is vital if you plan to use a third-party service. While there are numerous benefits of using a paid Green Card Lottery Service, you obviously lose all of these if it’s a fraudulent Service.

So, here are some tips on how to identify a fraudulent Green Card Lottery website. Luckily, US Green Card Office is a legitimate way to apply for the Green Card Lottery, so we can help you securely and legally.

What is a USA Visa Lottery Website?

The US Government runs the Green Card Lottery, also called the Diversity Visa Program. In short, it’s a way for foreign nationals to win a Green Card without the standard eligibility criteria. The Green Card Lottery means you don’t need to have a job lined up or have family ties in the United States.

Despite being an easier way to get a Green Card, you still need to submit an application. It’s not particularly complicated, but it’s easy to make small mistakes that result in disqualification. These include:

• Incorrect application photo(s) not following the strict photo guidelines.
• Missing information on your online Diversity Visa Application or DS-260 form.
• Incorrect information about your education or work status.
• Not understanding the application form.
• Filing your passport information incorrectly.
• Providing incorrect information about your country of birth.
• Providing incorrect information about your native country.
• Not being able to submit the application online due to technical problems.

In our experience, up to 65% of lottery applications are rejected each year for one of the above reasons. Considering rejection means you must then wait a year to resubmit, it’s best to get it right the first time around, as you don’t get a second chance.

And that’s where a Green Card Lottery Service comes in. Essentially, they’re paid services that guide you through the application process to ensure everything is correct. On the surface, it sounds like a beneficial service to provide, but it’s also ripe territory for fraud.

Why are some Visa Lottery websites fraudulent?

Green Card Lottery assistance is an ideal concept for fraud. After all, almost anyone can launch a website within a very short period of time.

While it’s unfair to describe people who use these services as desperate, we can definitely think of them as more vulnerable. By seeking out a service for assistance, they put themselves in a position of trust in the companies they contact.

Most lottery websites will ask for payment before they begin helping with your application. Add to this the actual fees for submitting an application, and you can probably see why fraudsters target them.

Unfortunately, the internet is full of fraudulent activity because of how anonymous and decentralized it can be. As such, it’s up to potential consumers (Green Card Lottery applicants) to be vigilant when reaching out to a service they wish to use. The first step in vigilance is to know the main signs for how to identify a fraudulent Green Card Lottery website.

How to identify a fraudulent Green Card Lottery website!

So, what must you know about how to identify a fraudulent Green Card Lottery website? Well, as a legitimate company, we’re all too aware of what an untrustworthy site looks like.

Of course, you can’t rely on these signs, but they should be a good enough starting point. If you have any doubts, walk away from the website and find a different one.

To avoid getting taken advantage of when you are looking to apply for the Diversity Visa Lottery, the following information should arm you with the necessary protection to ensure you are working with a trustworthy source. 

Here are a few things to watch out for:

How to identify a fraudulent Green Card Lottery website with Incomplete information

Most of the legitimate websites online will provide you with detailed information about the company and its service along with multiple ways to contact the company with any questions or concerns.  If the website lacks a “Contact us” page with address and phone numbers and only provides an email address then think twice about using that website and service.

Similarly, look for broken or dead pages. A legitimate website might have one or two, but it’s unlikely. In theory, any company that uses a website as its main business presence will keep the website updated and complete.

When you contact a Green Card Lottery Service by email you should expect to get a reply within 24-48 hours, if you do not get a reply then do not use that service.

Guarantee of being selected

If any fraudulent Green Card Lottery service gives a guarantee that your application will be selected you should avoid that website. However, don’t confuse this with a service’s ability to guarantee that your application will be accepted.

A professional immigration service will help you avoid making any mistakes and errors in your application. This means your application won’t be disqualified for the reasons mentioned above, but it doesn’t mean you’ll win a Green Card through the Visa Lottery. Draws are completely random and selected by a computer to ensure everyone’s chances are equal from this perspective. So, if a Green Card Service guarantees you’ll win, you’ll know to look elsewhere.

Guarantee of getting a Green Card by a Fraudulent Green Card Lottery Service

When you look at a website and they guarantee you will get a Green Card, you should know that that is simply not possible since the selection process is random and computer-generated.

Even applicants that “win” the lottery are still not guaranteed a Green Card. After selection, applicants must still attend an interview in the American Embassy (as with the normal visa process). As such, winning is dependent on an immigration officer in your home country’s US Consulate or Embassy, who’ll issue you with a temporary visa for admission into the USA. The Green Card itself is issued only when you have moved to the United States.

High (or Low) submission fees 

You should avoid any service that charges you more than $200.00 per application. Usually, application fees are between $80.00 and $200.00 for a professional immigration service to assist you.

Many fraudulent services charge anything between $50 and $2500

On the flip side, you should also avoid a service that charges under $80.00 per application. Considering an immigration service makes its money from submission fees, it’s unreasonable to expect a professional immigration service for $10.00 or $20.00.

How to identify a fraudulent Green Card Lottery website with No SSL Security 

SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer and is a security technology used to encrypt your information before and during transmission on a website. When you enter the web address and click Enter, watch the website address (URL) at the top of your browser. If it does not display “HTTPS” and you cannot locate the green padlock symbol anywhere in your browser, the site is not secure, and you should use a different website to avoid your personal information being compromised.

Most up-to-date browsers will notify you that a website isn’t secure. Google Chrome, for example, will warn you that you’re about to visit an unsafe site. You then manually have to click through to it. So, if you get this kind of warning when initially loading an immigration services site, it’s a good sign that it’s not legitimate.

Avoid Green Card Lottery Services without a clear legal statement.

To an extent, this is true of any service you use: there should always be a legal statement somewhere on the site, even if it’s difficult to find. For an immigration services site, it should clearly explain that the Green Card Lottery is free to apply for and, by extension, using their website is a paid service.

Aoid Green Card Lottery Services without a privacy policy.

Always lookout for the privacy policy on the website you’re visiting. It’s important that your personal information is kept strictly confidential. If a website doesn’t have a privacy policy, it’s usually because it’s not keeping your private and personal information secure.

Terms and conditions are a must on any website. Always read it before you apply. 

You should look up the terms and conditions on the website you’re planning to use when you submit your application. In there, you will find your legal rights and also your rights for a potential full or partial refund if you change your mind within a certain timeframe set by the service provider.

Always use a trustworthy service.

A professional Immigration Service would always provide links to a third-party trust validation service. The trust links are usually found at the end of the homepage. Look for the trust seals and remember to click on them to validate they are genuine and issued from a third-party provider.

Hopefully, you now have some information on how to identify a fraudulent Green Card Lottery website.

Another way, how to identify a fraudulent Green Card Lottery website is to check if the Green Card Lottery Service is listed on www.green-card-lottery-review.com

Rather than taking the risk of finding a site yourself, be sure to apply on a trusted website like US GREEN CARD OFFICE, apply online today at, www.usgreencardoffice.com