“Und Sie? Hätten Sie ja gesagt?” (And you? Would you have said yes?”) is the current national campaign run by the Schweizerische Polizeikorps and the Schweizerische Kriminalprävention (SKP) on the subject of fake shops. Find out how you can avoid falling victim to such machinations.
This campaign is meant to alert you to dangers in connection with the purchase of goods from online marketplaces. Some of these marketplaces are created with the sole purpose of deceiving buyers. We are talking about faked online shops here, often tempting buyers with very attractive prices for particularly popular products. However, such goods don’t actually exist. Internet users placing an order in such shops will therefore never receive the goods they purchased, or will receive only defective or faked goods at best.
It is also important to note that fraudsters often employ this scam to capture personal data their victims have potentially provided to them – with the aim of abusing their victims’ identity for further criminal offences later.
David’s story (shown in the video clip) is a good example of how such a scam works. He thought he had hit the jackpot and found a unique offer for an item he wanted to give to his daughter. In the even, he fell victim to a fraud. Although he had bought a games console at a great discount on the original price, his daughter will never receive this present, and he won’t ever get his money back.
This video clip is meant to demonstrate general advice provided by the campaign as to how to behave correctly when buying on the Internet; ideally to prevent anyone becoming a victim of cyber fraud:
- Beware of offers which look too good to be true.
- Only shop at trustworthy online shops and find out about any company before you buy from them. For instance, are T&Cs listed, and is there an option to contact them by phone? You should also have a look at the other buyers’ opinions and recommendations.
- Ensure that the Internet page you are buying from is secure before you enter your personal data such as passwords and payment details (such as credit card details).
- If at all possible, always order your goods on account and don’t pay in advance. Otherwise there is a risk that you never receive your goods and lose your money.
