According to this email, which purports to be from bank and financial services company JP Morgan Chase, the U.S Department of States and U.S Department of Treasury has approved a payment of $4,500,000.00 in your name.
Supposedly, the payment is to compensate you for your “previous unclaimed and uncompleted transactions”.
The message instructs you to send your contact details along with a scanned copy of your ID to JP Morgan Chase so the transfer of your compensation payment can proceed.
However, the email is not from JP Morgan Chase and the claim that the US government has approved a payment to you is a lie. Instead, the email is from criminals intent on tricking you into sending them money and personal information.
Rather than accept that they have been conned, some victims may delude themselves into believing that it was just a hitch in the process that stopped their promised payment.
Scam emails like this one can tap into that delusion and offer the “straw” that such victims have been seeking.
But, if people fall for the trick and contact the criminals, they will then be asked to send a processing fee that is supposedly required to allow the compensation payment to be completed. If a victim does send money, the scammers will continue to demand further payments.
Once they have extracted as much money as possible from their victims, the criminals will disappear, once again leaving their desperate victims out of pocket.
And, they may also be able to steal the identity of victims using the personal information they have collected during the course of the scam.
Advance fee scams like this are very common and take many forms.
Access more information about Advance Fee Scams
An example of the scam email:
Inbox
xJPMORGAN CHASE BANK & CO. U.S.A. <biblioteca@esade.edu>
6:59 PM (30 minutes ago)
to RecipientsJPMORGAN CHASE BANK & CO. U.S.A.
[Contact details removed]Our Ref: JPMCB/CTB/6×780/19.URGENT TRANSFER OF YOUR US$4,500,000.00Attention Beneficiary
In fight against corruption in the Banking system and in pursuit to re-build a good relationship with foreigners by the President of the United States of America.
We wish to inform you that every files and reports concerning international payment of all the foreign beneficiaries was brought to my office in the Order and instruction of the U.S Department of States and U.S Department of Treasury.
I must confess that i shared tears after seeing your unclaimed and uncompleted transactions, It was a national slap and a disgrace to this Country after noticing that your have paid for all the fee to receive your fund but your funds never got to your bank account because of the selfish interest of the banks and Individuals mandated to transfer and release your fund to your bank account.
The U.S Department of States and U.S Department of Treasury has approved a compensation payment of US$4,500,000.00 in your name which shall be transfer to your bank account through an online, We will create an online bank in your name and you will transfer your fund by yourself through our online to your bank account.
We chose to transfer your fund through an online banking so that no Agency will notice or stop your fund. Sir, you shall receive this compensation fund within 3 working day, if you comply with our instructions and adhere to our directives.
Get back to us with your information as listed below.
Your Full Name:
Address:
Phone number:
Age and Occupation:
Next of Kin:
Scan Copy of your identification
Thank you for your mutual understanding and cooperation as we wait to read from you soonest
Yours Faithfully,
Dr. Harold Williams
Tel: [removed]
Foreign Remittance Department
Importance Notice
After considerable thought and with an ache in my heart, I have decided that the time has come to close down the Hoax-Slayer website.These days, the site does not generate enough revenue to cover expenses, and I do not have the financial resources to sustain it going forward.
Moreover, I now work long hours in a full-time and physically taxing job, so maintaining and managing the website and publishing new material has become difficult for me.
And finally, after 18 years of writing about scams and hoaxes, I feel that it is time for me to take my fingers off the keyboard and focus on other projects and pastimes.
When I first started Hoax-Slayer, I never dreamed that I would still be working on the project all these years later or that it would become such an important part of my life. It's been a fantastic and engaging experience and one that I will always treasure.
I hope that my work over the years has helped to make the Internet a little safer and thwarted the activities of at least a few scammers and malicious pranksters.
A Big Thank You
I would also like to thank all of those wonderful people who have supported the project by sharing information from the site, contributing examples of scams and hoaxes, offering suggestions, donating funds, or helping behind the scenes.I would especially like to thank David White for his tireless contribution to the Hoax-Slayer Facebook Page over many years. David's support has been invaluable, and I can not thank him enough.
Closing Date
Hoax-Slayer will still be around for a few weeks while I wind things down. The site will go offline on May 31, 2021. While I will not be publishing any new posts, you can still access existing material on the site until the date of closure.Thank you, one and all!
Brett Christensen,
Hoax-Slayer
