Is laternenfestival.com safe?
http://laternenfestival.com/
Ticket shop for 'Laternenfestival' events is flagged as phishing and tied to reports of unpaid refunds
laternenfestival.com sells tickets to lantern-festival style events in German cities. Two antivirus engines label it phishing and three more flag it as suspicious, German press describes the offering as a suspected fraud scheme, and customers report months of waiting for refunds. The site's own pages could not be reviewed, so the score rests on third-party warnings and detections rather than on what the shop itself says. That puts it in High Risk.
At a glance
Saved with this scan, at the time of the check (Nov 15, 2026); each value is explained in the sections below.
Domain age
1.2 years old
Registered Aug 20, 2025Expires Aug 20, 2028Certificate
Valid
www.instagram.com's certificate (the redirect target)Hosting
United States (US)
Amazon Technologies Inc.Popularity
Not in the Cloudflare Radar top list
Antivirus
5/93
5 antivirus engines flagged this URLSafe Browsing
Not flagged
Not flagged on major threat listsCommunity
No reviews yet
Checked
Nov 15, 2026
Where this site sits
- Dangerous1–20
- High Risk21–44
- Moderate Risk45–69
- Low Risk70–84
- Safe85–100
The score combines saved evidence strength and analysis quality. Coverage is reported separately.
Why 28/100
High Risk covers scores 21–44. 3 findings pulled the score down; 2 pushed it up.
What pulled the score down
- Strong1 independent antivirus family reported an adverse result. VirusTotal re-checked the URL on November 15, 2026; its earlier analysis from October 30, 2026 had 5 engines flag it.
- Moderate2 independent sources carry complaints or warnings about this site, including: "Kriminelle locken mit „Laternenfestivals“ in Düsseldorf, Köln und weiteren NRW-Städten. Es handelt sich um eine mutmaßliche Betrugsmasche."
- Moderate2 independent sources carry complaints or warnings about this site, including: "Seit Monaten kämpfe ich um die Rückerstattung, bekomme jedoch nur Standardantworten, jedoch keine Rückerstattung!!!"
What pushed the score up
- SupportsThe browser threat feed returned no threat warning.
- SupportsThe registrable domain is 452 days old, about 1 year 2 months
No points per finding are stored for this report: our analysis weighed all findings together to set the score. Each finding shows its saved severity instead (Decisive, Strong, Moderate or Minor).
Lost money or shared details on laternenfestival.com? Do this now
Act quickly: the first hours matter most for a chargeback.
- Call your bank or card issuer now
Ask them to dispute the charge or open a chargeback; the sooner you act, the better your odds. Card payments can often be reversed. Bank transfers and gift cards are harder, but report them to your bank too. Crypto payments usually cannot be reversed: report the wallet address and transaction ID to the exchange you sent from.
- Change any password you entered
If you entered a password on laternenfestival.com, change it there and anywhere you reused it, and turn on two-factor authentication. Keep screenshots, order confirmations and messages as evidence.
- Report the site
Reports help get scam sites taken down faster and warn other people.
- Report the domain to its registrar
GoDaddy.com, LLC takes abuse reports at abuse@godaddy.com (480-624-2505). Include the address and what happened.
- Ignore anyone offering to recover your money
"Recovery" services or agents who contact you, or ask for a fee up front, are almost always a second scam aimed at victims. Your bank's dispute process and the official reporting services never charge a fee in advance.
Full answers about refunds and reporting are in the Safety FAQ below.
01 · Investigation Brief
Investigation Brief
Checked on
How we checked
Coverage: strong · 5 of 6 applicable core capabilities
- Antivirus (60 of 93 engines answered): completed
- Google Safe Browsing: completed
- page reading · not available
- page capture · not available
- domain records: completed
- web research: completed
laternenfestival.com sells tickets to lantern-festival style events in German cities. Two antivirus engines label it phishing and three more flag it as suspicious, German press describes the offering as a suspected fraud scheme, and customers report months of waiting for refunds. The site's own pages could not be reviewed, so the score rests on third-party warnings and detections rather than on what the shop itself says. That puts it in High Risk.
What the evidence shows
A fresh multi-engine malware scan re-check on 15 November 2026 shows 2 malicious detections (BitDefender and G-Data, both labelling it phishing) and 3 suspicious ones across 93 engines. An earlier analysis from 30 October 2026 had 5 engines flag the URL.
RUHR24 reports that criminals are luring people with 'Laternenfestivals' in Düsseldorf, Köln and other NRW cities and calls it a suspected fraud scheme. The same report says the Impressum names a Berlin company 'Laternenfestival' that appears neither on Google Maps nor in the company register.
An independent review platform's reviewers describe waiting more than three months for the refund of two tickets (66 euros) and fighting for months while receiving only standard replies and no money back. These are customer accounts, not something our scan observed directly.
Technical checks versus operator risk
The browser threat feed shows no warning and most antivirus engines report nothing, but a clean result does not show that the shop is trustworthy. The site's pages returned HTTP 429 on both attempts, so its contact details, refund terms and checkout path were never reviewed, and no credential-harvesting behaviour was seen first-hand.
The domain was registered about 1 year 2 months ago. The root address redirects to an Instagram profile, and the TLS certificate we read belongs to Instagram, so it says nothing about this site. The hosting IP carries an abuse score of 32/100, which is shared-infrastructure context only. An independent site-rating service lists the ISP as Shopify.
Ages and dates in this analysis are at the time of the check (Nov 15, 2026).
Why the score is 28
02 · Security Evidence
Security evidence
Antivirus Engines
5/ 93
detectionsFresh result
5 engines flagged this URL
Every saved adverse engine is listed below. The full provider matrix remains available for audit.
- Malicious
- 2
- Suspicious
- 3
- Total
- 93
- Malicious2
- Suspicious3
- Clean55
- Undetected33
| Engine | Finding |
|---|---|
| BitDefenderMalicious | phishing |
| G-DataMalicious | phishing |
| alphaMountain.aiSuspicious | suspicious |
| ESETSuspicious | suspicious |
| GridinsoftSuspicious | suspicious |
All 93 engine results
- BitDefender - phishing - Malicious
- G-Data - phishing - Malicious
- alphaMountain.ai - Suspicious
- ESET - Suspicious
- Gridinsoft - Suspicious
- 0xSI_f33d - Unrated
- Abusix - Clean
- Acronis - Clean
- ADMINUSLabs - Clean
- AILabs (MONITORAPP) - Clean
- AlienVault - Clean
- AlphaSOC - Unrated
- Antiy-AVL - Clean
- ArcSight Threat Intelligence - Unrated
- AutoShun - Unrated
- Bfore.Ai PreCrime - Unrated
- Bkav - Unrated
- BlockList - Clean
- Blueliv - Clean
- Certego - Clean
- ChainPatrol - Unrated
- Chong Lua Dao - Clean
- CINS Army - Clean
- CRDF - Clean
- Criminal IP - Clean
- CSIS Security Group - Unrated
- CTX AI - Clean
- Cyan - Unrated
- Cyble - Clean
- CyRadar - Clean
- desenmascara.me - Clean
- DNS8 - Unrated
- Dr.Web - Clean
- EmergingThreats - Clean
- Emsisoft - Clean
- Ermes - Unrated
- ESTsecurity - Clean
- Forcepoint ThreatSeeker - Clean
- Fortinet - Clean
- Fortra - Unrated
- GCP Abuse Intelligence - Unrated
- Google Safe Browsing - Clean
- GreenSnow - Clean
- GreyNoise - Unrated
- Guardpot - Unrated
- Heimdal Security - Clean
- Hunt.io Intelligence - Unrated
- IPsum - Clean
- Juniper Networks - Clean
- K7AntiVirus - Unrated
- Kaspersky - Clean
- LevelBlue - Unrated
- Lionic - Clean
- Lumu - Unrated
- Malwared - Clean
- MalwarePatrol - Clean
- MalwareURL - Unrated
- Mimecast - Unrated
- Netcraft - Unrated
- OpenPhish - Clean
- Orcapot - Unrated
- PhishFort - Unrated
- Phishing Database - Clean
- Phishtank - Clean
- PREBYTES - Clean
- PrecisionSec - Unrated
- Quick Heal - Clean
- Quttera - Clean
- Rising - Clean
- SafeToOpen - Unrated
- Sangfor - Clean
- Sansec eComscan - Unrated
- Scantitan - Clean
- SCUMWARE.org - Clean
- Seclookup - Clean
- Snort IP sample list - Unrated
- SOCRadar - Unrated
- Sophos - Clean
- StopForumSpam - Clean
- Sucuri SiteCheck - Clean
- Synthient - Unrated
- ThreatHive - Clean
- URLhaus - Clean
- URLQuery - Unrated
- Viettel Threat Intelligence - Clean
- VIPRE - Unrated
- ViriBack - Clean
- VX Vault - Clean
- Webroot - Clean
- Xcitium Verdict Cloud - Clean
- Yandex Safebrowsing - Clean
- ZeroCERT - Clean
- ZeroFox - Unrated
How security vendors categorise this site
- alphaMountain.aiEntertainment, Suspicious
- Forcepoint ThreatSeekerentertainment
Each vendor’s own label for the site, saved with the antivirus result. Labels are separate from the engine verdicts above and can disagree with each other.
Security Scans
Checked against the browser threat feeds available to this scan — no hit.
03 · Investigation Story
Investigation story
What the site claims
Independent evidence classifies the site as shop, but the page's own claim could not be captured.
What we observed
Saved browser evidence recorded cross domain landing.
What independent research found
5 external findings were saved and compared with the page evidence.
What remains unverified
1 of the 6 applicable core capabilities did not complete, so those gaps remain visible in the coverage ledger.
What kind of site and risk is this?
Threat category
Fake Shop & Commercial Deception
Service and business model
Shop
Observed behavior
Evidence behind this classification
Web research findings
Independent findings for laternenfestival.com, including public complaints, named review sources, registration records, and look-alike-domain evidence.
- RUHR24open
"Kriminelle locken mit „Laternenfestivals“ in Düsseldorf, Köln und weiteren NRW-Städten. Es handelt sich um eine mutmaßliche Betrugsmasche."
- RUHR24open
"Im Impressum steht eine Firma namens „Laternenfestival“ mit Sitz in Berlin – die es weder bei Google Maps noch im Unternehmensregister gibt."
- Trustpilot (customer reviews)open
"Seit Monaten kämpfe ich um die Rückerstattung, bekomme jedoch nur Standardantworten, jedoch keine Rückerstattung!!!"
- Trustpilot (customer reviews)open
"Wir warten nun seit über 3 Monaten auf die Rückerstattung von 2 Karten (66,--)."
Reputation Sources
How this domain rates across independent threat-intelligence and blocklist providers.
04 · Domain & Infrastructure
Domain & infrastructure
The plumbing behind the site — who registered it, how it’s encrypted, where it’s hosted, and where it links out. A valid certificate or a calm server doesn’t mean the business is honest — scam sites pass these checks too.
Infrastructure map
- Domainlaternenfestival.com
- Redirects towww.instagram.com
- Hosted byAmazon Technologies Inc.
Domain Timeline
- Aug 20, 2025Domain registered
First appeared in WHOIS records — 1.2 years old when this review was saved.
- Nov 15, 2026Saved security review — Rated High Risk
The completed checks from this saved scan are detailed above.
Domain & Encryption
At the scan on Nov 15, 2026: 41% of the registration period had passed
Report this domain to its registrar: send the address and what happened to this contact.
At the scan on Nov 15, 2026: 92% of the validity period had passed
This is the certificate of instagram.com, the site this URL lands on. Certificate issued for *.www.instagram.com.
A shared content-delivery network address answers for many sites, so it is not the site's own server and says nothing about who runs it.
Redirect Chain
The site refused our redirect check, so this chain may be incomplete.
- 1301http://laternenfestival.com/
- 2301http://www.instagram.com/laternenfestivalcross-domain
- 3302https://www.instagram.com/laternenfestivalcross-domain
- 4429https://www.instagram.com/accounts/login/cross-domain
Server Reputation
05 · Evidence Ledger
Evidence ledger
- Antiviruscomplete
- Browser threat feedcomplete
- Page contentunavailable
- Analysiscomplete
- Visual evidenceunavailable
The conclusion is supported by the evidence saved with this report.
Technical threat
suspiciousMalware, phishing, credential theft and hostile infrastructure.
Operator / customer risk
suspiciousComplaints, withdrawals, business conduct and commercial traps.
Source coverage and freshness
Status shows whether usable evidence was saved; finding shows what that evidence observed.
| Source | Result | Completion | Finding | Freshness |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Antivirus | 5 of 93 engines flagged | Completed | Adverse | fresh · analysed Nov 15, 2026 |
| Browser protection | No browser threat-list match | Completed | No adverse finding | this scan · Nov 15, 2026 |
| Page content | Page content was not available for semantic review | Unavailable | No saved finding | Not available |
| Visual evidence | The saved page capture was not reliable enough to use | Unavailable | No saved finding | Not available |
| Independent research | 5 independent findings were saved | Completed | Adverse | this scan · Nov 15, 2026 |
- Antivirus
- Result5 of 93 engines flagged
- CompletionCompletedFindingAdverse
- Freshnessfresh · analysed Nov 15, 2026
- Browser protection
- ResultNo browser threat-list match
- CompletionCompletedFindingNo adverse finding
- Freshnessthis scan · Nov 15, 2026
- Page content
- ResultPage content was not available for semantic review
- CompletionUnavailableFindingNo saved finding
- FreshnessNot available
- Visual evidence
- ResultThe saved page capture was not reliable enough to use
- CompletionUnavailableFindingNo saved finding
- FreshnessNot available
- Independent research
- Result5 independent findings were saved
- CompletionCompletedFindingAdverse
- Freshnessthis scan · Nov 15, 2026
07 · Safety FAQ
Safety FAQ
Answered from the saved verdict and evidence in this report.
Is laternenfestival.com a scam or a legit online store?
Is laternenfestival.com safe to use?
What should I do if I already gave my details to laternenfestival.com?
Can I get my money back from laternenfestival.com?
I ordered from laternenfestival.com but nothing arrived — is it a fake shop?
How do I report laternenfestival.com?
Why does laternenfestival.com look legitimate if it's a scam?
Has laternenfestival.com been flagged by antivirus engines?
Is laternenfestival.com on any phishing or malware blacklists?
How old is the laternenfestival.com domain?
Does laternenfestival.com have a valid SSL certificate?
How often is the laternenfestival.com report updated?
08 · Final Verdict
Final verdict
Ticket shop for 'Laternenfestival' events is flagged as phishing and tied to reports of unpaid refunds
The written conclusion remains part of the saved report.
laternenfestival.com sells tickets to lantern-festival style events in German cities. Two antivirus engines label it phishing and three more flag it as suspicious, German press describes the offering as a suspected fraud scheme, and customers report months of waiting for refunds. The site's own pages could not be reviewed, so the score rests on third-party warnings and detections rather than on what the shop itself says. That puts it in High Risk.
09 · Community
Community
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