A Facebook post shared in Ethiopia claims the United States is offering free travel opportunities to two million Africans.

The post includes a link that purportedly leads to an application to register for the green card lottery. However, the US embassy confirmed that the post was a scam. Moreover, the link leads to a job search application unrelated to US visas.

The post in Afaan Oromoo translates to: “Our people who are interested in travelling to America without any expense, please download an application that leads to travel opportunities that America provides to two million Africans and register by fulfilling the DV requirements.”

“DV” refers to the Diversity Visa programme, which every year grants US visas to 55,000 foreigners who are picked via a lottery system. The post includes a link purportedly leading to an application, with the URL featuring the words “USA-jobs-visa-form-opportunity-2023”.

It also shows a photo of two armed men in military uniform seated on a motorbike. The post has been shared more than 120 times since it was published on Facebook on April 16, 2023.

A review of the post’s edit history shows that it was modified several times. It started off with just the photo of the armed men accompanied by a long list of popular hashtags, including #bestphotochallenge – but nothing about the US or visas.

The first version of the post drew more than 9,000 interactions. A few hours later, it was edited to replace the list of hashtags with a claim about an application that supposedly would help people earn 11,500 a day – currency not stated – by working online. It was edited again on April 18 to replace the job claim with the US travel opportunity one.

The post appeared to use popular hashtags to attract social media engagement before then changing the text of the post to promote a hoax or scam. This is a common practice among online scammers.

The United States is the top destination for migrants worldwide, with 51 million international migrants living in the country by 2020, according to United Nations data (archived here) Around 2.1 million immigrants from Sub-Saharan Africa lived in the US in 2019, or some five per cent of the total foreign-born population in the country, according to the Migration Policy Institute.

However, America is not currently providing free travel opportunities to two million Africans, as claimed in the Facebook post. The US Embassy in Addis Ababa confirmed that the claim was unfounded.

“These posts and messages are NOT affiliated with the US Embassy and are not valid. They are scams”, it told AFP Fact Check in an email. It also advised social media users to beware of such scams as they risked seeing their personal information used for fraudulent or malicious purposes.

“The time for entering the 2023 DV lottery has passed. Please be advised that all visa and travel-related information is available on the US Embassy Addis Ababa website”, it added.

The link in the post opens a page titled “USA Jobs & Visa Form Opportunity-2023”. But the text on the page, in English and Afaan Oromoo, lists unrelated job opportunities. It also provides a link to a supposed application form that in fact leads to an alleged Android app for job seekers.

Again, the “Jobs in USA” Android application provides neither travel opportunities to the US nor assistance with the green card lottery.

• An AFP report