Accra, Oct. 31, GNA - The US Embassy in Accra on Wednesday asked applicants of the US DV Lottery programme to deal directly with its official internet website for registration.

It said complaints reaching it indicated that many Ghanaians were targeted for schemes where fraudsters charge large sums of money to assist with DV applications.

Mr Michael Evans, Chief Consular Officer, who disclosed this at a press conference, said some of the fraudsters claimed they had connection to the US government or some method which would improve applicants' chances of winning.

"The only official site for which all entries must be done is www.dvlottery.state.gov," he said and urged all prospective applicants to carefully follow the rules regarding entries.

The lottery, which was completely free of charge, was opened and runs through to December 2, he said. The programme operates under the US Emigration law and makes available 50,000 permanent resident visas annually to people from countries with historically low immigration rates to the United States. Mr. Evans said Ghana was third in sub-Saharan Africa, and eighth in the world in terms of lottery winners and over 3000 Ghanaians won the lottery last year.

He said some applicants thought winning the lottery would give them automatic visa but that was not the case as every winner would be made to go through the process just as any other visa applicant. "Winners would be made to pay a non-refundable application fees - even if it was determined that an applicant does not meet eligibility requirements," he said and appealed to the public to follow the rules and regulations and not to waste money.

He, therefore, urged the public to desist from using visa fixers and other fraudulent methods to enable the programme achieve its goals. "With extensive technology at our disposal, we are able to detect fraudulent claims quickly," he added. 31 Oct 07