Fraudsters misuse the name of BaFin to gain the trust of consumers and lend credence to their unlawful demands. For example, they might claim to be BaFin employees in phone calls or emails. Consumers have also received fake letters featuring a forged BaFin letterhead or logos.

Recognising attempted fraud using BaFin’s name

BaFin does not initiate contact with private individuals

BaFin will only initiate contact with consumers in exceptional cases. Unsolicited or unexpected communications from people claiming to work for BaFin are usually attempts to commit fraud. Ignore requests to make a payment to a supposed BaFin account in order to confirm your identity or your account or to advise you on financial products.

BaFin only uses e-mail addresses ending in “@bafin.de”

BaFin only uses email addresses with the domain “@bafin.de”. The only exception is BaFin’s newsletter (BaFinWebDE@newsletter.gsb.bund.de). Email addresses featuring any other domain do not belong to BaFin. However, please also be aware of the risk of e-mail spoofing.

BaFin is based in Bonn and Frankfurt am Main only

BaFin has offices in Bonn and Frankfurt am Main. It does not have offices in other German or international cities.

BaFin does not communicate via chat apps

BaFin never uses chat apps (WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook Messenger, iMessage, etc.) for external communication.

BaFin only uses certain social media accounts

BaFin has the following official social media accounts:

Instagram

LinkedIn

Mastodon

False claims regarding BaFin’s activities

BaFin’s tasks do not include:

• Recovering lost investments, crypto earnings or losses incurred as a result of fraud. BaFin also does not commission external companies to carry out such activities.
• Issuing licences (for brokerage/trading).
• Levying taxes/fees for private financial transactions (in particular for the payment/transfer of cryptocurrencies).

BaFin therefore also does not advertise such activities on social networks etc.

Common scams

There are many different scams used by fraudsters. Several cases have come to light in which unknown persons have called consumers using BaFin’s name. In these cases, BaFin’s fax number appeared on the telephone display. The callers threatened to freeze the consumers’ bank accounts or initiate a debt recovery process if the consumers did not pay a certain amount of money.

Another scam involves fake invoices, sometimes in English, which are sent to retail investors under BaFin’s name.

You can lose a lot of money to fraudulent, unauthorised online trading platforms: employees of these platforms call consumers and aggressively demand that they invest ever-increasing amounts. Once they have invested their money, consumers attempt in vain to get it back. Having obtained customer data, fraudsters then often pose as good Samaritans aiming to help consumers recoup their lost funds. These criminals often claim to have been engaged by, or even to work for, trustworthy authorities such as BaFin. In many – but not all – cases, the poor quality of the language used in correspondence on (alleged) BaFin letterhead offers a telltale sign that the correspondence is fake.

BaFin does not recruit consumers to test accounts

Scammers are not always after consumers’ wallets when they use BaFin’s name fraudulently. For instance, several cases have come to light in which unknown criminals posed as BaFin employees on the telephone or online and invited people to open a test account with a credit institution. These criminals then used the data harvested by means of a fake account set-up process to open accounts with the institution in those persons’ names, presumably in order to use them for criminal purposes.

BaFin has also become aware of an increasing number of cases in which companies dishonestly advertise jobs in “Treuhandservice” (escrow services). We would like to make it clear that, contrary to the information provided in these job adverts, BaFin does not register or manage escrow accounts. Applicants in these cases are asked to use their own accounts for the onward transfer of funds gained through criminal activities. Consumers who work in these “escrow services” may themselves be committing a crime.

Consumers must be vigilant

These examples illustrate how varied the tricks used by fraudsters who misuse BaFin’s name can be. BaFin regularly reports scams whenever it is made aware that its name is being used fraudulently. At the same time, fraudsters are always coming up with new tricks. Be vigilant! Criminal intentions are often not easily discerned and are constantly changing.