Beware, rip-off in the name of justice!

Judicial authorities are warning against scammers who are fishing with fake offers, payment requests, and invoices. The sender is not the judiciary!

This article is part of the special feature "Beware of address book scams!"

The Federal Ministry of Justice and the state justice administrations warn against misleading online services with offers, payment requests and invoices that do not originate from judicial authorities.

Several scenarios are known: In some cases, criminals demand payment of alleged fees from their victims for entries recently published in court registers . Sometimes, protected domain names are used (for example, handelsregisterbekanntmachungen.de or insolvenzbekanntmachungen.de). In other cases, the design of the letter gives the impression that it is an official court invoice.

Cases where companies receive an invoice for registration in a private register are well-known . The fraudsters pretend it's the official register. The offers, payment requests, invoices, and transfer slips from these companies appear to be official forms and sometimes even include a warning notice mimicking one. In some cases, these letters can be identified by the fact that they contain false email addresses.

Courts do not use private email providers or mobile numbers 

Important to know: Public authorities have their own domains and do not use private email providers. Court email addresses are usually identified by country-specific domains such as .nrw.de or .bayern.de. Courts cannot be reached via special telephone numbers or mobile phones.

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The judiciary advises: Such letters and payment requests have no legal effect on their own ; they do not create any payment obligation to the issuer. Rejecting these offers does not affect the legal validity of official publications. Courts will never request payment of fees or costs by telephone . Billing is handled exclusively through court treasuries or directly by the judicial authorities.

practical tip

If in doubt, please contact the competent courtthat you can find on justizadressen.nrw.de/de/justiz/suche can determine!
Also the German Protection Association against Economic Crime (DSW) offers its help at telephone number: 06172/12150, fax: 06172/84422, mail@dsw-schutzverband.de 

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