You received a text message that appeared to come from Trade Republic — and then transferred money to fraudsters? This page gives you everything you need: immediate measures, free template letters you can use yourself, and an honest legal assessment.
The faster you act, the greater the chance of getting your money back.
Contact Trade Republic and expressly request a SEPA recall, i.e. a recall of the bank transfer. Use that exact term. Document the time and manner of your contact with screenshots. If TR cannot be reached: write in parallel by email and via the in-app chat — and document the lack of availability. This can become legally relevant later.
Have your Trade Republic account blocked immediately. The Trade Republic emergency hotline is available 24/7 at +49 322 13232813. In parallel, you should also use the in-app chat and send an email to support in order to document the account block in writing.
File a criminal complaint (Strafanzeige) — in person or online. Request a confirmation with a file number. The police can use their channels to arrange for the recipient account to be blocked.
Save screenshots: the SMS thread, your call log, transfer confirmations in the app, every communication with Trade Republic. Write down a timeline from memory, with exact times — when the SMS arrived, when you made the transfer, when you noticed the fraud, when you contacted TR.
SEPA transfers are processed in half-hourly clearing cycles. As long as the money has not yet been credited to the recipient’s account, a recall can stop the transfer without the recipient’s consent. Once the funds have been credited, it becomes considerably more difficult. With instant transfers, cancellation is no longer possible.
Would you like to take action yourself?
We provide free template letters that you can use yourself in dealing with Trade Republic: a GDPR (DSGVO) access request, a recall complaint letter, and a demand letter. We also explain transparently in which cases a lawyer actually makes a difference — and in which it does not.
Since the beginning of 2026, fraud cases have increased in which perpetrators use so-called SMS spoofing: they send forged text messages under Trade Republic’s sender ID. These messages appear in the same chat thread as genuine verification texts — the smartphone cannot detect the forgery.
The text message typically warns of an allegedly requested withdrawal and contains a phone number. Those who call it reach fraudsters posing as Trade Republic employees. Under considerable psychological pressure, victims are persuaded to transfer their balance to a supposed “security account.”
BaFin (German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority) expressly warned about this scheme on March 10, 2026. The Bavarian police had already warned publicly on January 20, 2026 about an accumulation of cases — at that time with losses in the high six figures in Middle Franconia alone.
Video: Our client Peter describes how he lost €100,000 to fraudsters — and why it could have happened to anyone.
In the cases known to us, Trade Republic has rejected responsibility with the argument that the customers executed the transfers themselves. But the legal situation is more nuanced. There are several points of analysis that should be examined in each individual case:
Based on the information currently available, Trade Republic does not offer immediate telephone availability for fraud cases. Under § 675m BGB (German Civil Code), a payment service provider must give the customer the ability to report the misuse of a payment instrument at any time. If delayed access to support causes a SEPA recall to be initiated too late, so that the money can no longer be recovered as a result, this gives rise to a concrete loss caused by the delay.
Trade Republic sent verification codes via SMS and thereby created an anchor of trust that the fraudsters were able to exploit. There are established countermeasures — such as registering the sender ID with mobile network operators or switching to push notifications — which, as far as is known to date, were not implemented.
Based on the information currently available, the fraud scheme was known since January 2026 at the latest — the Bavarian police warned publicly on January 20, 2026, and BaFin followed on March 10, 2026. If Trade Republic already had knowledge during this period and did not proactively warn customers or did not take sufficient technical protective measures, this may constitute a breach of duties to protect customers. The timeline can be clarified through the GDPR access request.
Under § 55 ZAG (German Payment Services Supervision Act), payment service providers are required to use strong customer authentication. If no 2FA was in place at the time of the fraud, any contributory negligence on the part of the customer is excluded entirely under § 675v Abs. 4 BGB.
Not every case requires a lawyer’s help. Here is our honest assessment:
You can find free template letters for all steps you can take yourself in our self-help guide.
If, after reviewing the materials and template letters, you would like legal support, you can reach us by email. Ideally, bring Trade Republic’s responses to your access request and your documentation — this enables us to provide a sound assessment.
