News: UK Clarifies Cheque Clearance Times

This is good news for residents of the UK who have been targeted by cheque forgery scams, which account for a fair slab of the job scams I report at Suckers Wanted. Banks have been quite clear about how soon after depositing a cheque you can draw on it, but they have been rather less clear about how long it takes to fully process the cheque. There is a window in which you can withdraw the funds, but the cheque can still bounce, and this is the window that scammers exploit. Although the window has not been eliminated, new rules make the window small and uniform across banks. If you receive a cheque in the UK and you don't fully trust the source (which you should not, unless you have significant prior experience with it), you should wait seven working days before you act on the payment. If the cheque hasn't bounced in that time, it's the bank's problem for not detecting the issue quickly enough.

These rules come into effect on the first of December.

Advance Fee Fraud: US Green Card Lottery

It's that time again: the time when you can apply for consideration in the U.S. Department of State Electronic Diversity Visa Lottery, and also when scammers will pretend that you've won it (see example below) in order to defraud you. It may come as a shock, but I didn't apply for entry to the increasingly-misnamed "land of the free", and I happen to know that " applicants selected in the Diversity Visa random drawing are notified by the Department of State, Kentucky Consular Center by letter, NOT email" [source].

There are a great many variations on this type of green card lottery fraud, but this one is a blatant case of advance fee fraud: they want you to pay a "visa processing fee". I suspect that they are not associated with us-green-card-lottery.org, although I don't think too highly of that site either. If you're going to enter this lottery, do yourself a favour and deal only with the U.S. government directly so that you can clearly tell the scams from the real deal.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: us green card lottery service <usgclsa@walla.com>
Subject: The Official U.S Green Card Lottery Program
To:

[image redacted] The Official U.S Green Card Lottery Program United States Department of State, National Visa Center 32 Rochester Ave, Portsmouth , NH 03801-2909 www.us-green-card-lottery.org    Case Number:  2007BK21783000              Dear winner.   We wish to notify you that you are among the selected lucky winners of the U.S visa Lottery (Green Card) through our email ballot lottery program held on the 20th of July in Arkansas (USA) The Green Card email ballot lottery program was conducted under the terms of Section 203 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) Section 131 of the Immigration Act of 2006 ( Pub.L.101-649) This is the second edition of the email ballot program and it provides winners "Green Cards"   The aims and objectives of the program is to give free visa's to citizens of developing countries around the world who wishes to travel to U.S and start a new life and work. The green card Lottery is a matter of huge benefits for those who want to try themselves abroad.   Selection 6.3 million Email addresses were randomly extracted during the 33-days extraction period that ran from 12.00 AM on Aug 10, 2007 until midnight, Sep, 9 2007. All extracted email addresses were assigned to different ticket numbers for representation and privacy for final selection through computer draw system and your email address attached to ticket number 56402-188 drew the lucky numbers which subsequently won you the U.S visa and we are sending the winning notification through the selected email addresses which means that, if you receive the notification in your mail box you have been selected among the lucky winners.   Your visa duration is 10 years multiple entries to the U.S, it is renewable upon expiration and it permits you to travel to U.S with your spouse. The visas have been apportioned among six geographic regions with a maximum of seven percent available to persons born in any single country. Our visa processing agents had been apportioned among the six geographic regions.   Visa claim application (step 1) Your visa winning details falls within our Asia/pacific booklet representative office as indicated in the draw system and we have forwarded your winning details to our Asia/Pacific office for the processing of your Green Card acknowledgement Certificates, therefore, FOR YOUR VISA FORM, REQUIREMENTS AND FURTHER DETAILS, contact our Asia/pacific agent with the below contact details;   Name:  Mr. Lewis Taylor.  Ofiice Address:  95 Wireless Road Panthumwam Bangkok Thailand. Tel:  +66- 8-1499-4471 Fax: +66-2251 9977 Email: uscounsular@oued.org      Approximately six hundred and twenty five (625) lucky selected winners had been notified through their selected winning email addresses including you today. All selected lucky winners will need to act on their claims applications quickly before the expiration of the visa claim deadline which is on the (30th Nov 2007)   Advanced Question. How can I make the claim of my visa? You will obtain your visa through the U.S Consular officer in your home country or any U.S Embassy nearest to you with your Green Card Acknowledgement Certificates that will be processed and send to you by our Asia/pacific agent. U. S. embassies and consulates will not be able to provide a list of winners until their Green Card acknowledgement certificates are processed with their case numbers and placed on the U.S Immigration Network Database.   Visa Processing Fee. Single-$755USD Dual-$1,250USD   What is processing fee? The processing fee pays for the accuracy preparation of your documents that will enable you to obtain your visa through the U.S Consular officer in your home country or country of your present residence. Green card experts charges a nominal fee to cover administrative and processing costs incurred in conjunction with the careful processing of every document. According to J.Stevenson Wilson, Author of Visa Lottery services Report, the total average fee charged by green card lottery services ($755USD) for one person,there is no correlation between the fee charged and the quality of services provided and its benefits.   Benefits. Winners will get FREE Airline Ticket to the USA. people that win this Lottery will get the constant legal status of the US inhabitant, an opportunity of free country entrance and departure, the right to be working in the USA legally and getting American salary. You may have any job in America, whether it is a government, public or private job. A permanent residence visa (as well as American work visa) eases your life. In addition to permanent legal residence Green Card holders also receive health, education, retirement, taxation, social security and other benefits.   Disqualification. Any selected lucky winner from the following countries will be disqualified; Mexico-Canada-Haiti-Columbia-Elsalvador-Jamaica-Poland-Peru-Korea-Dominican Republic-Philippines-Vietnam-Russia and United-Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) This is because each has more than 50, 000 candidates in the USA.   Please retain this letter and take it with you to your visa interview centre when directed.  Do not reply back to this notification email (busy)   Please read and follow all the enclosed instructions very carefully.   Sincerely yours, Mrs. Christine Roberts. Secretary General U.S Consulate-Kentucky.

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