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Missing twins: police search draws blank

 

Swiss police said Friday a massive operation to find missing twins kidnapped in January by their father had failed to uncover any new evidence.

 

Published: 18 April 2011 09:19 CEST

Swiss police said Friday a massive operation to find missing twins kidnapped in January by their father had failed to uncover any new evidence.

More than 140 police were deployed to scour the areas between western Switzerland’s Morges and St Prex, after a new witness came forward.

Eleven dogs from Austria, France and Switzerland also took part in the two-day operation which ended on Friday evening.

“Despite the large-scale search undertaken by canton Vaud police and partners, the search, which ended at 4 pm, did not provide any new material for the investigation, which is continuing in France and in Italy, as well as in Switzerland,” police said in a statement.

No trace has so far been found of six-year-old Livia and Alessia Schepp since they disappeared at the end of January along with their father Matthias.

He later threw himself under a train in southern Italy after having sent a letter to his estranged Italian-born wife in which he told her he had killed the fair-haired girls and that they were “resting in peace in a quiet area.”

The latest search in Switzerland was launched after a witness came forward last week to give testimony about a man who was seen carrying a suitcase in the Boiron region — near western Switzerland’s Morges.

Even though there was no breakthrough, the mother of the twins, Irina Lucidi, told journalists on Friday evening that she remained hopeful. “Hope is the last thing to die,” she said.

For members

CRIME

How to avoid the ‘police’ phone scam in Switzerland

The Swiss government has issued a warning about an increasing number of fake calls purporting to be from police. But there are ways to avoid this scam.

Published: 18 April 2024 13:20 CEST
How to avoid the 'police' phone scam in Switzerland

Switzerland’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has been monitoring the phenomenon of fake calls from alleged police authorities for nine months now.

But in the last three weeks, reports of this scam have almost tripled, the NCSC said, indicating just how widespread it is.

What is this about?

The scam begins with a call coming, allegedly, from police or another Swiss authority.

A voice, which the NCSC describes as ‘robotic’, informs the person who answers the call that their personal banking data is involved in criminal activities, or makes a similar alarming (but false) claim.

According to the NCSC, “it is not a person who calls, but a software The machine randomly tries Swiss phone numbers throughout the day. If the number is invalid, it simply moves on to the next one.”

“By using this software, the number of calls that can be made is virtually unlimited. It could go through practically all the phone numbers in Switzerland in a day,” the Centre adds.

After raising alarm about your bank account, the fake ‘policeman’ will urge you to “press 1” to be put in touch with a human being and obtain more information.

If you do this and, worse yet, divulge your personal data to the caller, you risk having your computer and credit card hacked.

What should you do (and not do) if you get this call?

The most obvious answer is to immediately hang up because, as the NCSC explains, “real police never play recorded phone messages. They also never ask for money or sensitive personal data over the phone.”

To that end, the Centre recommends that anyone receiving this call: 

  • Should hang up as soon as you hear the recorded message
  • Not press 1, or any other numbers, during the telephone conversation
  • Not get drawn into a conversation.
  • Never grant access to your computer, not even via remote maintenance software.
  • Never reveal prepaid card activation codes.

A fake tax refund

While the ‘police scam’ is the latest attempt at extortion reported to the NCSC, it is far from a unique case.

Scores of them are reported to the authorities each year, including the one reported earlier in 2024.

It involved phishing emails about alleged tax refund entitlements.

However, the link in the email leads to a phishing page. 

Here too, authorities advise to ignore these emails, not click on the link, and not enter any personal data on the phishing page.

READ ALSO : The common scams foreigners in Switzerland need to be aware of

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