First, the good news: residents of Germany receive relatively low volumes of phone spam: an average of just 3 unwanted calls per person each month. That compares to 15 calls per person each month in both France and Spain.
Now, the bad news: Germans must still be cautious when answering unidentified calls, because scammers are targeting them, especially with sweepstakes and PayPal scams. In Germany one-third of all unknown calls are either nuisance or fraud calls.
Those were some of the findings in Hiya’s recently-published Global Call Threat Report, which includes data from Q4 2024. Read the report to discover:
- Number of spam calls per person per month in 40+ countries.
- Percentage of calls that are suspected to be fraud vs. nuisance.
- Detailed analysis of the US, UK, Canada, Spain, France, Germany and Brazil.
- Special section on the rise of deepfake scams.
Download the Q4 2024 Global Call Threat Report
Top phone scams in Germany
The makeup of phone scams in Germany is different from other countries in Europe and the US. For example, in the fourth quarter of 2024 the #1 type of phone scam in Germany was sweepstakes scams (“gewinnspiel” in German). These have remained #1 for years, but you won’t find them among the top 10 in any of our other key countries. Sweepstakes scams snare their victims by telling them they’re won a large prize — but they need to pay taxes or fees in advance in order to claim that prize.
Coming in second were PayPal scams. Users report robocalls pretending to be from PayPal, saying a purchase has been made on the account and asking the call recipient to press a number to confirm or deny the transaction. If the recipient presses a number, they will surely be connected with a fraudster who will ply them for information and account numbers.
The third most common scam type in Q4 was tech support scams, which aren’t unique to Germany, but it is the only country where they show up in the top 10. With these scams, the caller pretends to be a tech support employee from Microsoft, Windows, or a well-known anti-virus provider. The goal is to gain access to the victim’s computer.
The “Hallo mama” scam was #4, and it has been making the rounds in Germany for the past several quarters. It begins with an SMS message saying, “Hello, mama/papa. I’ve lost my mobile phone. Please message me on WhatsApp at this new number.” If the conversation continues on WhatsApp, a request for money follows.
Health insurance scams have been on the rise since last year. Users report robocalls informing them that they’re paying too much for their private health insurance (krankenversich), encouraging them to speak to a representative for more information.
The other top scams in Germany are common in all our other key countries. They include Amazon scams, cryptocurrency scams, and bank scams.
Get the full report
The Global Call Threat Report is a valuable resource for phone carriers, businesses and individuals. Use the report to compare phone spam in your own country with other countries in your region and other countries around the world.
