Claim: Canada Visa Lottery 2022/2023 online application form is open.
Verdict: False. According to the official Canada visa website, Canada does not have a Canadian visa lottery.
Full Text
A text circulating on WhatsApp and other social media sites indicates that the “Canada Visa Lottery 2022/2023 online application form is open.” Parts of the text read, “The Canadian Government has increased the number of VISA issued to people through visa lottery by 500% in 2022. By Law, a maximum of 75,000 visas are available, but it has been increased to 175,000 this year.” It also advises people to “Take this chance to apply and migrate legally to Canada.”
A link is provided for people who want to apply to follow and commence the application process. Applicants are assured of Canadian citizenship with guaranteed education and employment.
When the link is clicked on, an applicant will be asked to provide his or her biodata and password to proceed.
Afterwards, the applicant will be asked to ‘validate your name’ and ‘choose visa type’ to continue. When this is done, there will be a pop-up message that reads, “Congratulations (Name), you are qualified for the final stage of Canada visa lottery enrollment.” The applicant will be instructed to:
- Share it with five groups or 15 friends on WhatsApp (Click on the “SHARE” icon below).
- After filling in the GREEN verification bar, you will be automatically redirected to our “VISA FORM” page.
- You will receive a confirmation email within 24 hours after your successful application.
So, is it authentic that Canada has opened its portal for Canada Visa Application 2022/2023?
Verification
Checks by DUBAWA on the official Canada Visa website, which is run by the Cohen Immigration Law firm, a private company with over 40 years of experience assisting clients who want to immigrate to Canada, have revealed that Canada does not have a Canadian Visa Lottery.
In fact, once the official website is opened, there is a disclaimer that states, “Canada does not have a Canadian Visa Lottery.” It also adds, “Certain webpages advertising a 2019/2020 Canada Visa Lottery Application are leading international visitors to our website, CanadaVisa.com. Please note that Canadavisa.com is in no way associated with those websites, which are misleading because the Government of Canada does not issue visas through a lottery, and the promised application form does not exist.”
Aside from the disclaimer issued on the official Canada Visa Website, additional checks by DUBAWA through Scam-detector and Scam Adviser indicate that the purported Canadian Lottery site may be fraudulent.
Scam Adviser rates every website automatically by looking at where the server of the website is located, if an SSL certificate is used, who owns the domain name and other public and private sources. It rates Iyupz.com trust score at 42/100.
Scamadviser highlights some positive features of Iyupz.com, stating that “DNSFilter considers this website safe and Flashstart did not find any malware of phishing activities.” However, its negative highlights are that “This website does not have many visitors, presence of many low-rated websites on the same server, and several, mainly negative reviews were found for this site.” Also, the ‘Domain age’ is “very new,” according to Scamadviser.
According to Scam-detector, the Rank of the website (Iyupz.com) is 1.2, which means it is “Dubious, very new and suspicious.” It adds that “Iyupz.com has one of the lowest ratings on our chart. It’s very suspicious, and genuine reviews are impossible to find.”
With regard to the 1.2 ratings, Scam-detector states, “There are many reasons for this minimal rating for now. We created the 1.2 ranks according to a formula that aggregates 53 factors relevant to iyupz.com’s industry. The algorithm used factors varying from the customer service in its sector all the way to the DA (Domain Authority).”
DUBAWA used whois.domaintools to investigate the website in question further. Information uncovered indicated that the website has a New Jersey-based IP address and has been host to more than three other domains.
More than three domain name changes took place over one year. This indicates the likelihood of suspicion and falsehood.
Conclusion
Canada has no Visa Lottery, and the Iyupz website is suspicious.
This report was produced under the DUBAWA Non-urban Journalists Mentorship project aimed at promoting a culture of truth and verification in non-urban newsrooms in Ghana with support from the US Embassy in Ghana.
