Abuja — The United States government yesterday said it was collaborating with theNigerian government to bring to book suspects involved in financial crimes and electronic economic fraud.

U.S. Embassy Consular Ms. Victoria Coffineau stated this at an interactive session with newsmen at the Embassy yesterday in Abuja.

She admitted that there is a cordial working relationship between financial crimes investigators of both countries stressing that the general public could also assist by providing sufficient details about fraudsters.

Speaking specifically about the ongoing 2008 Diversity Lottery, the U.S. envoy said "We are aware that there are a lot of people out there who want to defraud the people of their legitimate money, claiming they are representing the State Department. But this is not true. If victims can provide sufficient details, I can assure you we will have legitimate need to pass the information to the law enforcement agents."

She cautioned that the DV Lottery is free and that people should disregard emails notifying them they had won whether they had applied or not because the State Department does not notify visa lottery winners by email.

"There have been instances of fraudulent websites posing as official U.S. government sites. Some companies posing as the U.S. government have sought money in order to "complete" lottery entry forms.