Chasing returns is treacherous
Fraud attempts often occur with daily and fixed-term deposits because websites can now be created with little effort. These website operators set the trap using search engine optimization to appear at the top of the results lists. Anyone looking for interest or returns online often ends up in the hands of fraudsters.
Don’t be tempted by high interest rates
Some scammers buy contact information from consumers in search of investment opportunities from shady companies. dealers address. These lure interested parties with the promise of safe returns or lure them with promises of high interest rates. To receive more information, customers must register on these sites with their names and addresses.
Be careful with testieger.festzins- Kapitalanlagen.de
One such website is testieger.festzins- Kapitalanlagen.de. This advertises “fixed-term deposit 6.50% per annum”. If you want to find out more, you have to register and log in with your details. At first glance, it is not clear whether the website offers investments – it advertises “Interest paid to date: 2,067,417.70 euros (100%)”. Elsewhere it is said that they only provide information about investments.
Investment advice requires approval
Anyone who brokers or advises on capital investments requires approval from the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (Bafin) or the commercial supervisory authority. Some dubious providers therefore express themselves ambiguously on their websites in order to protect themselves legally. In any case, our request to the website testieger.festzins- Kapitalanlagen.de remained unanswered. The operator also uses the websites festgeld- Kapitalanlagen.de or Gute-Yield.tips. Some websites have a printout with incorrect information.
Aif-investment.com cheats you with fixed term deposits
One of our readers registered on a similar financial products website and later received an unexpected call that drew him to aif-investment.com. “There was a lot of information that an average consumer probably doesn’t know,” our reader said. “The overall impression and customer service were convincing to me.”
Fake company name trick
Our reader first had to identify himself via video and then received fake contracts from several banks. The fraudsters did not have to do anything else to steal 50,000 euros. After our request, which went unanswered, the operators went into hiding. The printout used the address and name of a real company, which confirmed to us that this was an identity fraud. A “who check” of aif-investment.com shows that the website was only registered in mid-June 2024.
Stiftung Warentest’s warning list
Have you also had experiences with dubious suppliers? Then send us your information to: warningliste@stiftung-warentest.de
Doubtful website tageszins24.de
The website tageszins24.de also promotes several other investment options in addition to daily and fixed-term deposits. What is striking here is that it mentions a company in the disclaimer that was deleted years ago. The operators also did not respond to our request. All websites are on our investment alert list.
This way you don’t fall for scammers
- Data economy. Do not register with unknown websites that offer high interest rates or returns. More often than not, your data is sold without consideration.
- Be careful with calls. Always remain skeptical about cold calling. As a rule, reputable providers do not take this approach.
- Check those involved. Always check the legal notices of financial application providers on the Internet. There should be a company there that you should look up on the Internet.
- ““WHOIS query”. If you Google the query “WHOIS”, you will find several websites on the internet where you can check the registration of websites for free. If a website has been registered recently, this is a warning sign – so you can find it quickly Check the offer.
Note on the Stiftung Warentest investment warning list
The investment warning list lists all companies, investment offers and services from the last two years that Stiftung Warentest has rated negatively. It is left Download for free in PDF format. It consists of several pages and is usually updated once a month. If two years have passed, the entries will be deleted if no negative reports have been reported in the meantime. Entries that are more than two years old and have not been reported subsequently will no longer be found in the current warning list.