Spotting fake shops: order safely before Black Week

A fake shop is a website set up for one purpose only: getting you to pay. Afterwards nothing is delivered, or you receive poor-quality goods at an inflated price. The consumer centres also describe operators faking delivery problems after payment and stringing customers along so that they do not take further steps (Verbraucherzentrale). Every day that passes this way makes it harder to get a payment back.

Setting one up costs the criminals very little. A shop template can be saved and reused under a new address with a few clicks. If a domain is blocked, the next shop appears under another address, and if the site runs on a server abroad, German authorities can often barely act against the operators, according to the consumer centres. A complete list of all fake shops therefore cannot exist.

Artificial intelligence adds to this. According to the police, it can be used to build shops with a polished layout and cleanly worded legal texts in next to no time (Polizeiliche Kriminalprävention). The consumer centre of Lower Saxony points out that an authentic-looking logo and a convincing product description are quick to produce today. The old rule of thumb that clumsy German gives a scam away no longer holds on its own. Spelling mistakes remain a clue, but their absence is no all-clear.

A typical pattern: the shop first shows several payment methods, such as invoice, direct debit or credit card. Only at the last step of the order is a bank transfer in advance the sole option left (Verbraucherzentrale). For heating oil shops, the consumer centre also lists payment in cryptocurrency as a warning sign alongside prepaid transfers. Under Section 312j (1) BGB, a reputable retailer must state clearly which means of payment it accepts at the latest when the ordering process begins. If payment methods vanish on the way to the checkout, that is a clear signal.

The difference matters to you because a bank transfer can only be stopped for a short time. How long depends, according to the consumer centres, on the time of day, the day of the week and your bank's practice: sometimes a few hours, sometimes only a few seconds (Verbraucherzentrale). With an instant transfer, the money reaches the recipient within seconds anyway.

Anyone running an online shop on a commercial basis must, under Section 5 DDG, keep certain details easy to find and permanently available, including name and address, for legal entities such as a GmbH also the legal form and the authorised representative, an email address and, where applicable, the commercial register and registration number. According to the consumer centres, this legal notice obligation also applies to foreign shops that target customers in Germany. A shop without a legal notice is therefore ruled out (Verbraucherzentrale).

A legal notice on the page proves nothing, though. Fake shops copy the addresses of real companies that have nothing to do with the fraud and are victims themselves. So check three things: does the address exist, and can the company be found there on a map service? Can a stated commercial register number be found in the federal states' joint register portal at handelsregister.de, and does the company name match? And is there a phone number where someone actually answers? The Fakeshop-Finder also scans shops for features such as a forged VAT identification number, which the consumer centre of North Rhine-Westphalia describes as typical of dubious sellers (Verbraucherzentrale NRW).

Running clocks and shrinking bars for supposed stock levels are meant to create pressure. The consumer centres point out that such a bar does not show how many items are really available, and advise checking an offer calmly despite the countdown (Verbraucherzentrale). Good deals come back, lost money usually does not.

The police sum this up in the SHS rule of the Initiative für sicheres Handeln: Stop when an offer puts you under pressure or sounds too good to be true. Question whether the shop is reputable, for instance by searching for other people's experiences. Protect yourself and others by reporting suspicious offers (Polizeiliche Kriminalprävention). During Black Week, however, genuine retailers use countdowns too. The warning sign is therefore the combination: a countdown at a well-known retailer that offers invoice payment is a sales trick, a countdown at an unknown shop that wants prepayment is a reason to close the window.

The payment method decides whether you see your money again if things go wrong. In their checklist, the BSI and the police crime prevention programme recommend buying on invoice or by direct debit, because these offer better options for reversing a payment in a fraud case, and payment methods with effective buyer protection (BSI and ProPK). The police also explicitly advise against paying with voucher, gift or prepaid cards or through cash transfer services (Polizeiliche Kriminalprävention).

With credit cards and payment services, a lot depends on the terms of the provider in question. Read them before you order from an unknown shop for the first time, not afterwards. For direct debit, on the other hand, the law applies: with a SEPA core direct debit you can demand a refund without giving reasons, but you must claim it from your bank within eight weeks of the debit (Section 675x BGB). So when you order during Black Week, make a note of when the money was taken.

For bank transfers, your bank checks before release whether the payee's name and IBAN match. If the name the shop gives as the payee differs from the actual account holder, you will see a notice before you confirm. Cancel the payment in that case. The IBAN's country code, its first two letters, also tells you something: if the shop's legal notice says it is based in Germany but the account is in another country, be careful. How the name check works in detail is explained in our article on payee verification in online banking.

Before Black Week comes the heating season, and it attracts fake shops too. Back in October 2025, the consumer centre of Lower Saxony warned of an increase in fake shops for wood, pellets and heating oil. In spring it is usually e-bikes, in autumn often heating fuel, as its legal expert put it:

Autumn 2026 looks similar. In early October 2026, the consumer centres' warning list at warnung.fakeshop-finder.de featured numerous shops offering firewood, wood pellets or heating oil. We deliberately do not name any here, because fake shops change their addresses quickly: a list made today is out of date tomorrow. Instead, check every unknown fuel dealer before ordering, using the steps above.

The consumer centre explains why the scam works so well with heating oil: many people only notice when temperatures drop that the tank is not full, and end up under time pressure (Verbraucherzentrale). Typical warning signs at fuel shops are prices well below market level, goods that only this shop can still supply while they are sold out elsewhere, and payment exclusively by prepayment or cryptocurrency. The police, too, explicitly count firewood, wood pellets and heating oil among the seasonal goods in high demand that fraudsters offer on temptingly cheap terms (Polizeiliche Kriminalprävention).

With fuel, you have an advantage that you rarely have with presents: there are dealers nearby. A local firewood or heating oil dealer whom you can phone and whose yard you can visit if need be is hard to fake. Ask friends and neighbours who they have been ordering from for years, and with a new dealer, pay after delivery if you can. If you would like to manage your consumption better over the winter, we can help with smart heating control.

Technik daheim is not a shop checking service and cannot make the decision for you in an individual case. But we come to your home in the Hildesheim area and the Leine valley and practise what this article describes on your own device. The online banking course covers safe transfers, recognising your bank's genuine website and staying calm with messages that push you to act immediately. In the computer course, spotting dubious websites is part of the programme, and you can let us know in advance about topics you would like to cover, such as checking a shop. If you mostly shop on your phone, the smartphone course helps you judge suspicious messages and alerts correctly.

The data protection course covers secure passwords, a password manager and two-factor sign-in for your important accounts, so that a single bad purchase does not put further accounts at risk. We explain all this patiently and without jargon to older relatives, see the page tech help for seniors. If you are planning to give devices as presents during Black Week, you will find tips in the article gifting technology and setting it up first. You can arrange an appointment through the contact form for a home visit.