The embassy said one particularly widespread scam e-mail for the Diversity Visa (DV) or Green Card Lottery instructs recipients to send money via Western Union to a fictitious person at the US Embassy in London. The US Embassy has also received reports of individuals receiving scam e-mails from an organization called USAFIS in a similar attempt to con individuals into believing they have won the Lottery. These two scams are only two examples of the many creative and deceptive ways scam artists take advantage of people in Uzbekistan.

“Under no circumstances should money be sent to any address or e-mail for participation in the DV Lottery. There is NO CHARGE to register for the DV Lottery. DV processing fees are only collected by the US Embassy in Tashkent at the visa interview. Any correspondence asking the DV entrant to pay any processing fees in advance of the visa appointment is the work of scam artists”, the embassy underlined.

“Only the US Department of State will notify DV program applicants of their winning entries. Furthermore, the Department of State and its Kentucky Consular Center (KCC) do not send e-mail notifications or SMS to those who registered with the DV Lottery informing them that they won the DV Lottery. Rather, registered individuals will only receive notification directing them to check their status on the Department’s of State’s official website at http://www.dvlottery.state.gov using the confirmation page they should have printed at the time they registered for the Lottery. It is the responsibility of individuals who have registered with the DV Lottery to retain their confirmation pages. Applicants, who have misplaced their confirmation page, will be unable to proceed with the DV application process as neither KCC nor the Embassy can replace this page”, the US mission said.

The embassy said DV Lottery for 2012: For those individuals who registered for the Diversity Visa Lottery from October 5 - November 3, 2010, the results will not be available until May 1, 2011.

Entrants who completed the online 2012 DV Lottery application form will not receive notification letters from KCC. Instead they must check the status of their entries themselves through the Entrant Status Check available at http://www.dvlottery.state.gov between May 1, 2011, and June 30, 2012. As noted above, entrants will not be asked to send money anywhere. All application fees will be collected at the visa interviews which for the 2012 DV Lottery winners will not begin until October 2011.