From routine citizenship and documentation questions to all manner of emergencies, U.S. Embassy Cairo is pleased to provide information and assistance for U.S. citizens in Egypt.

To get started, please use the U.S. Citizen Services Navigator. The navigator will ask a series of simple questions to direct you to online information on the most common topics OR provide instructions on how to contact us by email for less common questions and direct assistance.

We receive inquiries every day from people who have been defrauded for hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars by Internet contacts they thought were their friends or loved ones. Internet scams are attempts by con artists to convince you to send them money.

The most common scams involve someone allegedly in Egypt who is in some sort of trouble, ranging from detention to extortion or hospitalization. Inevitably, the sender is making an appeal for money. If this is someone you have not met personally, we urge you to stop corresponding with whoever sent the message, and please do not send any money to Egypt.

In many cases, scammers troll the Internet for victims, and spend weeks or months building a relationship. Once they have gained their victim’s trust, the scammers create a false situation and ask for money. Scammers can be very clever and deceptive, creating sad and believable stories that will make you want to send them money.

Before you send funds, check to see if you recognize any of the following signs, and realize that you may be a potential victim of a scam:

• You only know your friend or fiancé online and may never have met in person.
• Photographs of the scammer show a very attractive person, and appear to have been taken at a professional modeling agency or photo studio. If they provide you with a copy of their passport or visa, you can always contact the U.S. embassy in the country where the passport or visa was issued to verify the validity of the document.
• The scammer’s luck is incredibly bad – he/she is in a car crash, or arrested, or mugged, or beaten, or hospitalized. Close family members are dead or unable to assist. Sometimes, the scammer claims to have a young child overseas who is ill or hospitalized.
• You have sent money for visas or plane tickets but they can’t seem to make it to their destinations, citing detention by immigration officials, or other reasons that prevent them from traveling.
• The scammer claims to have been born and raised in the United States, but uses poor grammar and spelling indicative of a non-native English speaker.
• Although the scammer may claim to be in Egypt, he or she may ask that the money be sent to an account in another country.
• The scammer may even claim to be contacting you from a U.S. Embassy, where your partner, business associate, or friend is being detained pending payment of some type of fee. U.S. embassies do not detain people.

Internet scammers are using social networking sites to find victims. The scammers obtain a person’s login information, change his/her profile to make it appear as if the person is in trouble, then contact the person’s friends via those websites asking them to send money to help. To avoid falling victim to such a scam, always be suspicious of anyone asking for money through the Internet, including via social networking sites, and always verify a supposed friend’s circumstances by speaking to him or her directly. ALWAYS protect your online identity by securing your logins and passwords.

All of these scams have one thing in common – they contain requests for money. Con artists can be very creative and very determined. Be skeptical. Do not send anyone money unless you are certain that it is a legitimate request – even if you think you know the person well based on your Internet correspondence. Remember, local hospitals and authorities know to contact the U.S. Embassy in the event that a U.S. citizen is in need of assistance, and the U.S. Embassy stands ready to assist American Citizens in the event of a true emergency.

For more information on international financial scams, please visit https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/emergencies/international-financial-scams.html.

If you believe you are the victim of an Internet scam:

1. Do not send more money. Unfortunately, any money that you might already have sent is probably not recoverable.
2. End all communication with the scammer immediately, rather than attempt resolution directly. If you feel threatened, contact your local police at once. Do not attempt to personally recover the funds lost.
3. Report the matter immediately to the Internet Crime Complaint Center, a partnership among the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C), and the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BIA), at ic3.gov.
4. If the scam originated through a particular website, notify the administrators of that website.

US Government Websites

• Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) – Internet Crime Schemes
• Federal Bureau of Investigation – Common Fraud Schemes