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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

The so-called "419" scam is a type of fraud dominated by criminals from Nigeria and other countries in Africa. Victims of the scam are promised a large amount of money, such as a lottery prize, inheritance, money sitting in some bank account, etc.

Victims never receive this non-existent fortune but are tricked into sending their money to the criminals, who remain anonymous. They hide their real identity and location by using fake names and fake postal addresses as well as communicating via anonymous free email accounts and mobile phones.

Keep in mind that scammers DO NOT use their real names when defrauding people.
The criminals either abuse names of real people or companies or invent names or addresses.
Any real people or companies mentioned below have NO CONNECTION to the scammers!

Read more about such scams here or in our 419 FAQ. Use the Scam-O-Matic to verify suspect emails.

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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: Andreas Tiedtke <xx38@szzar.net>
Reply-To: <andiied010@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2016 05:51:55 +0100
Subject: I await your urgent response

Greetings to you,

I am Andreas Tiedtke, a German and former California State Legal Counsel, now a member of the Washington DC Judiciary, since 2013. I want to disclose and discuss this promising transaction that I would like to execute with you.

I had a client who was a Mexican American, an oil merchant both in USA and Mexico.In 2005 he was diagnosed with various ailments after the tragic incidents he experienced towards end of 2004. However, he was admitted to an acute care facility with esophageal cancer in late 2005, which later took his life on the 21st day of January, 2006.

My late client confided in me as I was his family legal counsel. In 2003 we both visited a financial institution in New York City where he saved $21m U.S dollars project fund. They(my client & his wife) had arranged the fund to build a hospital for their son as a surprise after graduation. However, the young man (my client's son) was the Next of Kin to the deposited fund! But because he's late now too, I would want to use your information to update the deposit file and make you the successor because my client died without updating his WILL, therefore, none of his extended family is aware of this particular deposit.

There is nothing to worry about, I shall provide you the deposit documents and other appropriate legal backup document.

We shall discuss about investing the fund, probably in your area of business or something lucrative either home or abroad. But you must keep this correspondence to yourself because of my position in the U.S Government. Kindly indicate your interest in assisting me in this venture. I would send my ID for recognition purposes, hence we proceed from there..

Kindly reply as soon as possible.

Best regards,
Andreas Tiedtke.

Anti-fraud resources: