Criminals have been very busy making fraudulent telephone calls in Switzerland over the past few weeks. Often, such telephone calls seem deceptively real. You can however protect yourself against them.
As far back as January, EBAS already published information on telephone phishing: Fraudsters ring victims pretending that they work for banks, authorities or renowned companies and try to obtain sensitive details such as e-banking credentials or credit card data, or to trigger fraudulent remittances.
Such attacks are usually carried out in a very professional manner and have been on the increase over the past few weeks. Perpetrators frequently use psychological pressure or urgency strategies to entrap their victims into quick reactions and override all common sense.
As often as not, they also use a fake telephone number, for instance apparently coming from your house bank. Sometimes even artificial intelligence is used to fake the voice of a caller, which then sounds like that of someone you know.
How to protect yourself:
- Never rely on the number displayed. If in doubt, call back using the official numbers quoted on your bank statements, their website or in your app.
- Don’t disclose any confidential information such as account numbers, passwords, credit card data or confirmation codes over the phone.
- Don’t download and install any software or apps if a caller asks you to do so.
- Don’t react to the tyranny of urgency. Don’t be thrown, and take your time before reacting or deciding on anything.
