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Thailand to extradite Swiss child molester

A 56-year-old man from St Gallen who abused his daughter and her friend over a period of years is to be extradited from Thailand.

Published: 8 March 2013 13:26 CET
Thailand to extradite Swiss child molester
The child molester will soon be behind bars in Switzerland. Photo: Stockers9

Tages-Anzeiger said the recipient of invalidity benefit, who fled to Thailand in 2011 to avoid incarceration, had agreed to be returned home.

The sex offender had been sentenced to six years by a St Gallen court on multiple counts of rape, incent and sexual assault.

He was arrested in January and is now in a Thai jail awaiting deportation.

The paper quoted Federal Office of Justice spokesman Folco Galli as saying that the Thai authorities had approved the Swiss extradition request.

Since the end of February the extradition decision was “legally valid and enforceable”.

The spokesman said that for security reasons the deportation would only be announced once the convicted child molester had been extradited.

“The form of transportation will take account of his poor state of health,” the paper quoted Galli as saying.

The man is obese, suffering from a metabolic disease.

According to Joe Keel, head of the St Gallen prison office, the convicted criminal’s return flight has already been booked.

Two police officers and one ‘medically trained person’ would be sent from Switzerland to the airport in Bangkok to collect him.

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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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