STAYING SAFE FROM IMMIGRATION SCAMMERS


Immigration compliance is a significant risk area for businesses and individuals making cross-border moves. David Sapsted reports on the latest visa scams, what governments are doing to combat them and the issues employers need to be aware of.


A


book translated into English only two years ago outlined dozens of scams and cons confronting migrants arriving in the United States. That might not sound terribly


innovative at a time when scams directed at migrants and visa seekers across the world are proliferating. Except the original German language version of the book, ‘Modern Swindles’, was first published more than a century ago. In the internet age, today’s scams are considerably


more sophisticated than bogus matchmaking agencies in 1912 charging immigrants for promises of marriage to non-existent locals. Indeed, they are so much more advanced and numerous that they pose problems for governments worldwide.


A GLOBAL PROBLEM Rackets these days often focus on unregistered agencies charging fees to would-be immigrants – workers and students especially – for visas they never receive; and organisations contacting people who have already emigrated and offering them paid help to resolve visa problems which, in reality, do not exist. The US Department of State’s Office of Visa


Services recently warned the public “of a notable increase in fraudulent emails and letters” being sent to visa applicants. “The scammers behind these fraudulent emails and letters are posing as the US government in an attempt to extract payment from (visa) applicants,” said the department.


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GLOBAL LEADERSHIP


IMMIGRATION


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