At present questionable invoices issued by ".DE Deutsche Domain" (info@deutschedomain.com), which claims to be a provider of domain registration services, are in circulation. These invoices are not related to DENIC in any respect. Please refer in addition to the warning issued by the consumer advice center of North Rhine-Westphalia
https://www.vz-nrw.de/de-deutsche-domain.

Before you pay anything, first of all take the time to check calmly what precisely it is that the payment is being demanded for. Make sure to always read the small print too.

Invoices for registering your .de domain and other services associated with it are sent to you only by the provider you yourself have commissioned to render these services. You will only receive an invoice from DENIC if you are a customer of our DENICdirect service - either because you arranged for DENICdirect to administer your domain or because your domain was in TRANSIT and you did not assign another provider to administer it.

Genuine written communication from DENIC is easy to recognize by

• the unmistakable letterhead with the DENIC logo;
• the explicit indication of the postal address of DENIC plus phone and fax number and e-mail as well as a contact at DENIC;
• the explicit indication of the DENIC value added tax identification number (USt-IdNr.) and the bank details;
• the explicit indication of the domain(s) concerned.

Our attention has been drawn to cases in which other companies have demanded payments from domain holders. These letters can be mistaken as invoices from DENIC. Thus, if another company unknown to you asks you for money for a domain service, you should check very carefully if the demand for payment is justified. If you have any doubt at all, you should contact the customer service department of your provider.