This paper reports a perception study that prompted native speakers to indicate the learner or native speaker status of the author of a written request. The requests were chosen from a DCT-elicited data pool of native English and German L2 speakers. In addition, informants were asked to rate the utterances on different perceptual dimensions. Data from 91 informants suggests that the success rate in distinguishing native speakers from learners through linguistic performance is close to chance level. Classification as a native speaker is, however, clearly correlated with intelligibility, perceived authenticity and the absence of formal mistakes. Based on these findings, we question the ability of native speakers to intuitively assess native-like communicative behaviour beyond formal aspects. We then discuss the relevance these results have for attempts to include pragmatic competence in language testing and certification.