Is there any way to verify a German police email address?

Question

Some time ago, a fraudulent Ebay seller tried to scam some money out of me. We avoided any loss, but in the last week, I have received an email from someone claiming to be from the police in Mannheim, Germany, asking questions about the transaction. I can't see anything that makes me think this is fraudulent, and they're not asking for information that would allow them to take anything, so I'm wondering whether anyone can tell me the domain for German police addresses and whether it is possible that a German police officer would contact me directly, rather than through our local force in Australia?

? · Accepted Answer

It is very common for scammers to create fake law enforcement email addresses. Is it something like "police @ gmail.com", "officer_johnson @ hotmail", or whatever free email address is available? If the officer mentions anything like: we have investigated the seller and he is legit. you owe the seller the money or if you don't finish the deal we will arrest you for fraud, that is just the scammer trying to scare you.

There is a very small chance that law enforcement has gained access to the scammer's email address and have traced his victims and near victims. Ask the officer for the website for the Mannheim police department, his full name and rank, land-line office number, badge number and office street address. Verify everything online.

Do you know how to check the header of a received email? If not, you could google for information. Being able to read the header to determine the geographic location an email originated from will help you weed out the most obvious scams and scammers. Then delete and block that scammer. Don't bother to tell him that you know he is a scammer, it isn't worth your effort. He has one job in life, convincing victims to send him their hard-earned cash.

Whenever suspicious or just plain curious, google everything, website addresses, names used, companies mentioned, phone numbers given, all email addresses, even sentences from the emails as you might be unpleasantly surprised at what you find already posted online. You can also post/ask here and every scam-warner-anti-fraud-busting site you can find before taking a chance and losing money to a scammer.

You could post up the email address and the emails themselves that you received, it would help answerers determine if you received a scam email or real one.

Kittysue · Answer

That looks a bit odd

Here is the contact page of the real Baden -Wurttemburg police where Mannheim is located
http://www.polizei-bw.de/kontakt/Seiten/default.aspx
The domain is similar but not the same but it doesn't look false
Even though it's all in German I would send them an email copying the email you received and see if they sent it to you
Don't change the Anlass or Thema boxes
Under Nachricht put your question
As for your personal details
Vormane - first name
Nachname - surname
Strasse - street address
PLZ - post code
Wohnort - city
Then click Abschicken (Send)

And here is a police athletics league and you can see that some of the members DO have a @polizei.bwl.de email address - so this is probably real
http://polizeisportverein.avandosport.de/teamcontacts

BlackRegion · Answer

It can be possible for German police to contact u directly and not through Australian local force. But like u say, it could be anybody. Best way to do this is to ask writer of email  to give u name and his police badge number. After that u can email the police in Germany yourself with info u have. Or u can even contact interpol with given information. If there is some investigation going on German police should give u Information through proper channels.

? · Answer

http://www.polizei-bw.de

Is there any way to verify a German police email address?

4 Answers