Scammers target refugees and foreigners in Switzerland
Fraudsters posing as Swiss authorities have been trying to scam asylum seekers and foreigners living in Switzerland, threatening that they would be expelled from the country if they did not pay money.
The scammers have been posing as members of the Swiss border control authorities, the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) or even the Federal Office of Police (fedpol), reported Le Matin Dimanche newspaper on Sunday. They have been threatening to withdraw the victim’s residence permit or expel them if they do not pay a certain sum of money into an account.
“It doesn’t work like that but for refugees, they may think that paying can help their asylum application,” SEM spokesman Reto Kormann told Swiss news agency Keystone-SDA. Confirming the report, he said the SEM had been informed by the border guard that refugees were being contacted in English.
The SEM therefore acted immediately to alert refugees and cantonal migration authorities to the scam, he said. His office declined to indicate the number of victims or amounts of money requested.
Fedpol says it will file a complaint and also encourages victims to do the same. “It’s an essential step in cases like this,” fedpol spokesman Thomas Dayer told Keystone-SDA.
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The scammers pretended to be investigators for Interpol and had contacted the victim over the phone, asking her to withdraw large sums of cash, according to the cantonal prosecution for economic crimes and the Bernese cantonal police. The case is one of over 70 calls which have been reported by local citizens in the Bern…
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