2023-05-05 02:27:37
Canton of Schwyz
Woman avoids possible phone scams because daughter is too young to drive
A woman received a call from a fake police officer telling her her daughter had been in a car accident. She recognized the fraud attempt immediately and tells 20 minutes what this call triggered in her.
published
A woman from the canton of Schwyz received a call from an alleged police officer in April. (icon picture)
20min/Michael Scherrer
As she later wrote in a Facebook post, the alleged scammer told her that her daughter was said to have been in a car accident.
Screenshot/Facebook
The woman was able to recognize the attempted fraud immediately because her daughter, who is still a minor, does not have a driver’s license. (icon picture)
Wikimedia Commons
The Kapo Schwyz, Zug and Lucerne call on the population to report such attempts at fraud, even if they come from anonymous callers. (icon picture)
20min/Marco Zangger
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A woman received a call in April from a woman posing as a police officer.
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This fake cop told the woman that her daughter was in a car accident.
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The woman immediately recognized the attempted fraud because her underage daughter does not yet have a driver’s license.
“A warning to all! I had a call from a woman today. I immediately thought of one fake call», writes a user in a post in a Facebook group. The woman told 20 Minutes that she received the call around 3pm on April 25 while she was at home with her two youngest children.
The alleged fraudster spoke High German and only said that she was from the police – and not, for example, from the cantonal police of Schwyz. Afterward, she told the woman that her daughter had allegedly been in a car accident. “But my daughter is only 15 years old and, given her age, she doesn’t drive a car. She was also at school at the time called. That’s when I began to realize that it was one attempted fraud might act,” says the woman*, who wants to remain anonymous. She then asked the alleged police officer where the accident happened, but following this question the alleged fraudster interrupted her call.
The shock following the phone call
According to her stories, the woman remained very calm during the conversation, which lasted only a few seconds: “It was only later that I realized what had happened, I told my husband and of course I was scared, then I cried out of sheer shock.”
After the incident, the woman decided to publish the post on Facebook in a group of regarding 1000 members to inform the population regarding this potential danger. “I think it is a simple measure to prevent such fraud attempts.» She had not reported this incident to the police. This is also because the call was anonymous and she mightn’t see a number on her cell phone display.
Scammers can adapt their scam to the circumstances
“A report to the police is never wrong – even if the number has been made anonymous. At best, we then determine that a certain area is affected and can warn there preventively, “says Simon Kopp, spokesman for the Lucerne public prosecutor’s office. Pascal Weber, media spokesman for Kapo Schwyz, and Judith Aklin, media spokeswoman for the Zug police, share this opinion. When asked, they write that it is not possible to determine whether attempts at such calls have increased during this period because the corps do not keep statistics on this.
All three speakers denied that such calls should be expected to increase during the holiday season. However, Aklin says: “There is no direct connection between more car trips and the increase in fraud attempts. However, it may be that the scammers will adapt their scam, the supposed story they are telling, accordingly.”
* Name known to editors
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