Europe's news in English

COPY LINK

CRIME

Girl escapes with bullet in head

An 18-year-old girl has survived after being shot in the head in an apparently unprovoked attack in a Swiss village late on Saturday night.

Published: 30 July 2012 09:42 CEST

The girl was making her way home in the early hours of Sunday morning in Hirschthal, a village in canton Aargau when she realised she was being followed, online news site 20 Minuten reported.

She suddenly felt a blow to her head as her attacker knocked her to the floor. As the man tried to continue his assault, the woman fought back. Surprised by the vehemence of her struggle, the man fled.

The woman nursed her bleeding head but it was only when the medical examiner took a look at it that it was confirmed that the wound contained a projectile in it that had come from a firearm.

Luckily the bullet caused no life-threatening injury to the woman, who was able to describe in good detail the appearance of her attacker.

Shortly after the description was released, the Aargau police intercepted a 28-year-old man, who confessed to the crime and was immediately arrested.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.

Become a Member to leave a comment.

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

Url copied to clipboard!