If an e-mail is not sent from the official e-mail address of the sender, you can assume that this e-mail is not genuine. The best thing to do is to search Google for the official address. Often you will find the official email addresses for customers on the websites of the providers.

The easiest way to see through emails is if they are written in incorrect German. Often the messages were not originally written in German, but were translated from another language using a translation service. Another indication of such e-mails are punctuation errors, such as Cyrillic letters or missing umlauts.

The merchant or service provider or idealo usually addresses you by your name and not as "Dear Customer" or "Dear User" - a first indication to take a closer look. Sometimes, however, it also happens that the sender of the email knows your name in phishing messages. So you should still take a closer look.

If you are requested via e-mail to act urgently and within a certain or short period of time, you should also be careful. Especially if this request is combined with a threat.

The aim of phishing e-mails is usually to obtain your personal and sensitive data. idealo and our partners will never ask you to send passwords or a PIN by e-mail. Senders of phishing e-mails often do this.

Opening a file or link

More and more phishing e-mails ask recipients to open a file or link. This is either attached directly to the email or alternatively is available for download via a link. In unexpected e-mails, you should never download or even open such a file. As a rule, this file contains a harmful programme such as a virus or Trojan horse.