US slams door on online Green card scam

Officials from the Federal Trade Commission and the State Department said a federal judge had issued a temporary restraining order against the operators of Internet sites that netted about $3m (£1.8m) last year.

The operation consisted of two men who ran eight Web sites and did business as US Immigration Services, US Immigration Online, USAIS and USIO, the FTC said Thursday.

The judge ordered the companies’ assets frozen, and authorities in Florida arrested both men — an American citizen and an Egyptian national — as part of a parallel criminal probe, the agency said.