There are many free and democratic countries in the world. Many of which are very rich and developed, but the country that most attracts immigrants and tourists, is without a doubt, the United States of America. The United States has long been considered as “the land of opportunity”. 20% of the world’s immigration, 45.8 million people, reside in the United States and its attraction comes from it being the most solid and developed economy in the world, has an excellent high education infrastructure and is a multicultural country where people of each and every country of the world coexist. But the desperation of many people to achieve the “American dream” makes them fall into common frauds and scams as we will see below.
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I was contacted by the owner of an immigration paper preparation agency, located in a very close country, with the following case: “I have been preparing immigration procedures of many types, but mostly for individuals and families who are seeking to immigrate to the United States. My work is simple, I help people to fill out all the forms and I check that they have all the documents required to apply for the corresponding visa. Three months ago, I found myself losing clients and finally I discovered that it was due to a new competition in town, apparently, this agency has an agreement with people at the US consulate and the visa of their clients gets always approved. If this is true, this would be an illegal activity that must be reported to the United States government because visas cannot be sold. I need you to investigate and document this illegal activity for me.”
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“Of course we can do that,” I replied, but deep down I thought it was just the anger of an older person who was losing clients. We started the research immediately and the core became interesting. Angry or not, my client was right, there was a very good rip-off in progress.
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We began by identifying and verifying the agency and its owners. The agency was very well promoted and its office was very well equipped. Its owners were three people, Milena [name has been changed] her husband, and her son. Milena was the head of the business, had some problems for allegations of fraud and some debts in the past, but had already solved those problems and now was doing very well financially. Since the beginning of the migratory procedures business, the standard of living of the family had changed, now they were enjoying luxuries that before they could not even imagine and were living in the best neighborhood of the city. Because their background was not so bad and apparently the whole business was in order we decided to carry out covert operations to determine the mechanism and magnitude of the scam. It took us 3 weeks but we did it. I can assure you that of all the scams I’ve investigated, as a private detective, this is one of the cleanest and safest I’ve ever seen.
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Milena, her husband and her son performed daily immigration procedures like any other agency, earning honest and stable money, but what made the difference in their income was the “additional and confidential service” offered by their agency. Milena examined each client and if her case qualified for the scam this was offered in secrecy. If the client’s case was a possible visa approval, if the client was desperate and if his or her level of street intelligence was not very high then Milena explained that she worked side by side with the consulate and that for $1,500 dollars she assured him or her that the individual or family visa would be approved. “This service, Milena explained, has to be kept in secret, but it is 100% guaranteed if your visa does not approve, come back and we will refund you back your $1,500.” Customers were amazed and paid the $1,500 dollars without objection. Milena, as we could discover, had no special connection with the consulate, her scam was very simple, she charged the $1,500 dollars and if the visa was approved then the client will not return and she will keep the money, only those whose visa was denied returned to pick up their money. As we could calculate Milena earned about $15,000 per month for the scam, plus the high profits that gave her the services of the agency. In this way, Milena would never receive complaints from her clients because she would refund the money if the visa was not approved. The investigative report was complete and included witnesses, it was left to the client to initiate the complaint to the consumer protection entity to arrest Milena and he did it.
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While there is no a perfect or corruption free government agency, I can assure you that the US immigration system is very difficult to bribe, so be suspicious of fraud every time someone assures you that they have contacts inside that will approve your case no matter what. For your safety always be suspicious or you will end up losing your money.
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Beware of fraud, but if you need help, call us at 866-224-1245.
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September 11th, 2016
By Private Detective Fernando Alvarez
DIARIO LAS AMERICAS
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