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Updated Wednesday, September 3, 2008 0:00 am TWN, CNA Taiwan man falls victim to green card scamIdentified only by his surname Li, the victim is an engineer working for a high-tech company in Hsinchu City, the CIB said. Having joined the green card lottery run by the U.S. Department of State three years before but having failed to win, Li came across the Israel-based company — which claims to help applicants submit their entries for the lottery program and charges clients for its “application inspection service” — through the Internet in June, the bureau said. Li then left his personal data such as name, telephone number and e-mail address on a registration form available on the company’s Web site www.usafis.org, but refused to provide his credit card information. On Aug. 19, Li received a phone call from someone claiming to be an official in charge of the lottery program at the U.S. Department of State, who told him that his application had been received and that he must provide his credit card number and card security code before his application could be processed, according to the CIB. Li revealed the information after he was assured that no money would be charged to his credit card without his signature and that the application was “free of charge,” the bureau said. Almost immediately after hanging up the phone, Li felt suspicious and that he might have been scammed. He called his credit card company only to find that an overseas transaction amounting to NT$18,285 had just been added to his credit card bill. Li later wrote to the company and received only two telephone numbers, neither of which are active, the CIB said. The bureau urged the public to be cautious when approaching a company such as USAFIS, which does not list its fees, customer service telephone number or contact email address on its Web site. The company, which advertises a lot on the Internet about winning a U.S. green card, is in no way connected to the U.S. Department of State, which makes available 50,000 permanent resident visas for free annually under its diversity visa lottery program. A large number of articles have been posted on the Internet accusing USAFIS of being a scam operation, including many written by the company’s clients who believe they have been conned. Subscribe to The China Post and save 25%. Click here Comments |
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The client registered on USAFIS’ website and gave all his personal details. He did leave out the credit card information in which our sales department called to complete the transaction. He gave his credit card for the purpose of ascertaining our application review service. He later contacted us to cancel due to personal reasons, none that had to relate to the service of USAFIS. As mentioned on our website under the Terms and Conditions icon (http://usafis.org/legal.asp), refunds are under the sole discretion of USAFIS. We tried to retain him as a customer, but he declined. USAFIS decided to refund his credit card anyway.
I cannot understand the CIB’s review of the case. One can visit our website and click on the Contact Us icon (http://www.usafis.org/helpdesk/support/) and there is a list of toll free numbers.
We wish to furnish you with some significant details concerning USAFIS:
1. USAFIS ensures its clients that their application to the U.S. Diversity Visa Green Card program (DV) meets all the requirements outlined by the U.S. State Department before it is submitted.
2. USAFIS services include data inspection, correct completion of the application form, scanning of applicant’s photos and submission of the application in a timely manner.
3. USAFIS also indicates the option of using the U.S. Department of State’s website which is free of charge (http://www.usafis.org).
4. USAFIS does not charge its clients for registering to the DV, but only for its application inspection service.
5. Furthermore, USAFIS posts on its website that it does not charge its client for the application submission (http://www.usafis.org/faq/land_english.asp), in addition to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s warning about fraudulent green card lottery scams (http://www.usafis.org/consumer_alert.asp) which is published as well in USAFIS web site.
6. USAFIS prides itself for helping millions of people with their application to qualify for the Green Card Lottery program.
7. Our guarantee is that our customers’ application will qualify for the Green Card Lottery program and nothing else.
In consideration of the above, it is clear that classifying USAFIS website as a fraudulent green card lottery services is improper and causes severe damages.
Sincerely,
David Nekrutman
Public Relations Manager
USAFIS
011-972-9-762-610
publicaffairs@usafis-mail.com