This is how you can easily track down online scammers

The goods never arrive, but the money is gone: Fake shops are annoying and get on your nerves. Now the consumer advice center of North Rhine-Westphalia has taken on the matter and published a fake shop finder. It’s very easy to use.

Fake shop finder presented by the NRW consumer advice center

Some dubious online shops can be recognized at first glance, others are much more professional. In order to better protect customers from fraud, the NRW consumer advice center now has one Fake Shop Finder presented.

Users only have to enter the Internet address of the respective shop in the fake shop finder. The tool then looks for characteristics that indicate fraudulent intentions could. The result is on the one hand in the form of a traffic light, on the other hand also broken down in detail. Whether an online shop is likely to be reputable or not can be seen at a glance.

Among other things, the consumer advice center NRW uses one for its fake shop finder List of known fake shops, but also relies on its own domain database. Ratings from the TrustedShops portal are included in the rating. A green traffic light indicates seriousness, a yellow one for abnormalities and a red one to keep your hands off the store.

Since fake shops often only exist for a few weeks or months, the age of the domain is also taken into account. There are more to come technical, linguistic and structural features. A proper imprint and a publicly stated sales tax ID are positive signals (source: Consumer Center North Rhine-Westphalia).

How to protect yourself with online banking:

Fake shop finder: PlayStation 5 scammers also targeted

The fake shop finder also examines whether the offered items extremely cheap are for sale. For products that are actually sold out or are currently difficult to get – like a PlayStation 5 – another warning signal applies. This is also the case when shops display a product countdown that is supposed to suggest that availability is decreasing rapidly.