Fraud Warning
Last Update May 3, 2023
Fraud Warning It has been brought to our attention that the Red Bull Brand has been illegally misused by third parties to commit fraudulent activities, especially on the internet or via e-mail. The main target of these fraud schemes is to make people pay money or to obtain personal and financial information from the contacted persons (so-called “phishing”) for later illegal actions.
It is of greatest importance to Red Bull to protect its trademarks and that its name, logo and brand are not misused for fraudulent activities. Red Bull does its utmost to ensure that any such activities are shut down.
Please be aware that Red Bull does not
  • send e-mails from a public email account, e.g., GMX, Hotmail, Gmail, etc.;
  • request any prepayments for handling fees, e.g., advertisement campaigns, job offers, etc.;
  • directly deliver products to a customer after the customer has made a prepayment to an “intermediate distributor / re-seller” or an “escrow account”.
Do not be the victim of a scam. If the offer seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Whenever you face any of the above, please be aware that you are most probably facing a scam. We strongly recommend checking such issues by
  • cross-checking the background of the sender, vendor or supplier;
  • critically checking the website to see if it looks professional with adequate contact information, imprint, etc.;
  • trying other contact opportunities, such as, another telephone number, other e-mail addresses etc.;
  • looking for spelling and grammatical errors in the email or website.
If you still have any doubt as to whether you are facing a scam, we recommend that you immediately discontinue all communications with the source but instead report them to your local police.
Common Fraud Examples: 1. Promotion Scam. The fraudsters send out e-mails in which recipients are informed about an alleged Red Bull promotion campaign. In order to get the chance to win money within this alleged promotion campaign and to get access to the competition, recipients are asked to forward personal data through a form. Red Bull does not carry out any such promotional programs, competitions or the like, and does not take part in any such activities with third parties.
2. Lottery Scam. Another scam using the Red Bull brand involves approaching people via an electronic message (SMS, e-mail etc.) informing them that they have won money in a lottery organized by Red Bull. Red Bull does not organize any lotteries at all, nor does Red Bull take part in any lotteries organized by third parties.
3. Employment Scam. In this scam, fraudsters set up fake websites and/or send out unsolicited fake recruitment forms offering fictitious job opportunities using Red Bull’s name and brand in order to obtain personal data. Red Bull does not send out unsolicited recruitment forms and never asks job applicants to pay the costs of an application, such as postage, handling fees, etc.
4. Car Advertisement Scam. The fraudsters trick victims into believing that they will get monetary compensation for placing Red Bull advertising on their private cars, but victims must first submit personal data. This is part of a large-scale identity theft and phishing attack. Red Bull does not do such advertising at all and never asks third parties to brand their private cars.
5. Export Scam / Non-existent Product Scam. Fraudsters offer Red Bull products below standard market price and representing themselves often as official Red Bull distributors. They offer Red Bull products at a very favorable price however demand that victims make advance or upfront payments before receiving Red Bull products (upfront payment against pro-forma invoice, proof of product, shipping documents, etc.). The fraudsters might also provide potential customers with fake Red Bull certificates to certify them as an alleged official Red Bull distributor. However, following the advance payment, the fake distributor disappears and does not fulfill its obligation to deliver the alleged Red Bull products.
If a deal is too good to be true, you are probably facing a scam. Therefore, we recommend to look at alleged offers and certificates very carefully and simply recommend to avoid such business.
In case there are any doubts please forward documents to us via brandprotection@redbull.com.