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Brother-in-law arrested over murder of Swiss teacher

The brother-in-law of a Swiss teacher found dead in Ticino earlier this week has been arrested on suspicion of murder.

Published: 20 October 2016 11:48 CEST

Brother-in-law arrested over murder of Swiss teacher

The victim worked in a school in Stabio, near the town of Mendrisio. Photo: Oliver Graf

The body of the 35-year-old teacher, who worked in a school in Stabio near Mendrisio, was found on Sunday in woods in Italy, near the border with Switzerland at Gaggiolo.

She had wounds to the head and one fingertip.

In a statement on Wednesday, Ticino cantonal police said they had arrested a 42-year-old Swiss citizen for murder.

“It is the victim’s brother-in-law,” it said.

The arrest was the result of investigations in collaboration with the police and prosecutor of Como in Italy, police said.

According to Blick, the man has made a partial confession for the crime and is said to have dumped his sister-in-law’s body in the woods.

The primary school in Stabio where the victim worked released a statement saying it was “deeply affected” by the tragedy and was working with trauma experts to offer support to teachers and pupils.

Correction: An earlier version of this story stated that the arrested man was the victim's brother. This was incorrect – he was in fact the victim's brother-in-law. The story has been amended accordingly.

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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