Identified 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.

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