Longer articles on individual scams: how they are built, how to spot them before you pay, and what you can do once the money is gone. Each article ends with the sources it relies on.
The courier wants cash for a parcel you did not order or that comes from a shop you do not trust. What to do at the door, what is still possible after paying and what Section 241a BGB says.
Read articleScams that come with the season: fuel at the start of the heating season, sales days in November, presents before Christmas.
When the heating season starts, shops appear that offer fuel cheaply, demand prepayment and never deliver. How to recognise them, what our own list shows, and what to do after a bank transfer.
Between Black Friday and Christmas many people look for consoles, toys and electronics that are sold out elsewhere. How to recognise fake shops during this period, how to judge discounts and which payment method protects you.
Black Friday falls on 27 November 2026. In the weeks before, shops appear that pose as outlets of well-known brands. What a crossed-out price is worth, how the shops reach you through ads, and what our list shows eight weeks ahead.
What a legal notice must contain, how to verify a trust seal with its issuer, and why a genuine trade-register number on its own proves nothing.
A security company has attributed around 119,000 identically built shops to one network, nearly all with the .shop ending. What the ending says about a shop, what our own list shows, and how to recognise a cloned shop.
If you do not know a shop, you search for its name plus “reviews” or “experiences”. Where that leads, which reviews mean something, and why an empty search result is not a verdict.
The German cyber security office, the consumer advice centres and the police name almost the same features for checking an unknown shop. What they mean, where they reach their limits and what our shop check looks at in the same places.
Fake shops put the commercial register number, address and VAT ID of real companies in their legal notice. How to check whether shop and company belong together, and what to do if your own company’s data is misused.
A seal in a shop is at first just a graphic. How to check the certificate for Trusted Shops, EHI and the Austrian trustmark, why the click alone is not enough and what our shop check looks at here.
Why prepayment by bank transfer carries the greatest risk, which deadlines apply for banks, PayPal, direct debit and credit cards, and where to report a fake shop.
Since 9 October 2025 your bank compares name and IBAN before every transfer. What the four results mean, what to do with each, where the check is useless against fake shops and classifieds scams, and who is liable if you pay despite a warning.
If you paid a fake shop, you want two things: your money back and the shop taken offline. Which office is responsible for what, in which order to proceed, and what you can report without having lost money.
Fake shops often leave only a bank transfer at the end of the order. Since October 2025 the money reaches the recipient in seconds. What verification of payee shows here, which payment methods leave a way back and what to do after a transfer.
Scams outside classic shops: fake parcel and customs texts, fraud on classifieds sites, supposed vehicle reports when selling a car.
Clone shops on .shop domains, a fake vote in a messenger, callbacks to fake bank staff and shares that do not exist: the scams police and consumer advocates warned about in September, with warning signs and next steps.
A video with familiar faces, a platform with rising curves, and finally a law firm that wants to get the money back. How the three stages connect, how to recognise each one and how to check a platform before the first deposit.
A contact you know asks you to quickly vote for a child in a dance contest. Entering your number and a code on the page hands over your WhatsApp. How to spot the message and what to do afterwards.
An email reports a debit and gives a number to cancel it, or your bank seems to call you itself. How to recognise both variants, what banks do not ask for on the phone and what to do if you have already talked to them.
A parcel is supposedly waiting, the address is missing or customs want a few euros. How to recognise fake delivery messages, what customs ask for, and what to do after a click.
On classifieds sites private individuals trade with each other, before Christmas often in presents. The most common scams for buyers and sellers, how to recognise them, and which payment methods the platforms themselves classify as unsafe.
An alleged buyer asks you to order a “vehicle report” on a specific site before the sale. The site is fake, and the loss falls on you, the seller.
We calculate the reading time from the article text itself, including the questions at the end. The basis is 200 words per minute.
Legal deadlines and payment rules appear in an article only with a source. If a rule changes, the linked source prevails; the date on the article shows when it was published.
Our own figures come from our database or from the Search Console of fakeshop.ai. Each article states the cut-off date and how we counted.