/~/blog/ How to deal with identity theft in Germany
2026.02.25

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Berlin flat hunt

One of the perks of living in such a big vibrant metropolitan city, is the privilege of searching for flats in such a competitive market, and getting the chance to deal with all of the challenges that come with competing with a bot fueled application process on websites like “immobilienscout24” or “kleinanzeigen”, which seem to be as popular with bots and scammers as they are with users and landlords.1

Once you get a response, each application starts to diverge, depending on the “Hausverwaltung”, the real estate agent, or the “Vermieter:innen” who sometimes just want to collect your info, or scam you (with overpriced “fitted” kitchen).

Pass that hurdle, and enjoy having to submit all your personal information to someone you barely trust, and in most cases, just an employee who doesn’t care that much about ensuring safe handling of these documents (which are sometimes asked physically), before making a cup of tea and enjoying a cozy evening reading German rental contracts with details about “charging you for the use of their electronic door system” and the need to “paint the outside of doors and windows that open to the inside”, the dream!!!

There is even a video game about Berlin flat quest that is almost as fun as the real thing!

Long story short, you made a mistake at some point and sent one or more un-redacted documents to someone who had a fake ad., or to someone who later offered outrageous contract clauses (like paying the caution in cash to their bank account2).

Now your ID or a bank slip is in the wrong hands, both of which have information about your address, birth-date, and name, this is what happened to me, or at least how I think my identity was stolen.

This information can be used for a multitude of actions, including but not limited to:

How do I recognize it?

In the following days/weeks, I started noticing emails from services that I never signed up for coming to my mailbox, which is not in itself a sign, it could be from many other sources (or leaked website information).

One of the emails that alerted me, was an email from an e-SIM provider asking for some information regarding the e-SIM complaint that I created for their support team.

This didn’t make any sense to me, especially if my data was leaked (name, address), why would they use my email to apply for an e-SIM that they might need to confirm or ask support about?

I’m quite confident that my email hasn’t been compromised, partially thanks to having MFA enabled on it, and reviewing my logins and active sessions.

A few days later, I received a POSTIDENT request from a bank, asking me to complete this identification in order to continue processing my credit request.

So, yes, my identity was stolen, and someone or something was actively using my data to take a loan in my name.

What do I do next?

Here is the list of things I have done so far:

For e-SIM related issues, detecting phone fraud is harder — it was by luck that I came across that email about the support ticket opened on my newly issued e-SIM. I reached out to the provider, but haven’t heard anything back. At least the impact is more contained and less dangerous (unless someone manages to find a way to use it to SIM swap my number with that e-SIM somehow, but again, I don’t use SMS 2FA, so it’s still mostly harmless).

Hopefully this saves someone the panic of figuring this out on their own.
Stay safe, and let me know if you have insight on e-SIM theft or have a similar checklist!✌️

  1. There is a much safer path, which is applying to the state-owned companies, but this takes significantly longer to process. ↩︎

  2. That’s illegal, don’t do that, the caution needs to be put in at least a joint bank account, and most of the time, a special bank account that can’t be used independently by either parties. ↩︎

  3. Shout out to “Targo Bank”, and their outstanding employee who helped me navigate this situation and informed me that they have informed the SCHUFA about this, cancelled the credit request, and will update the police incident report (which I provided them with a reference to), all of this while using my basic level German skills. ↩︎

  4. Some online banks like “DKB” don’t provide you with any way to contact them directly, but rather provide an “AI Assistant” that only speaks German and can “assist” you with your requests, because, if I’m stressed about losing my life-savings, or someone is taking a loan in my name, the first thing I think about is how helpful would it be if I can talk to an AI Chat Bot right now!!! ↩︎