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CRIME

Catching quadruple murderer leaves Swiss canton with huge bill

It was one of the most shocking crimes of recent times in Switzerland: the brutal murder of four people in a house in Ruppersil, in the canton of Aargau, in December 2015.

Published: 22 March 2017 12:02 CET
Catching quadruple murderer leaves Swiss canton with huge bill
File photo: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP
After a massive manhunt, in May 2016 a 33-year-old Swiss student was arrested and admitted murdering a 48-year-old mother, her two sons and the girlfriend of the older son at the family’s home. 
 
In the course of the investigation, Aargau authorities requested data from 48 mobile phone masts to track the phone numbers of some 30,000 people in the area at the time of the crime, reported the Aargauer Zeitung on Wednesday. 
 
That information was gathered by an independent telecommunications surveillance body working under the auspices of the Swiss federal justice department.
 
Now Aargau faces a 800,000 franc bill for that search – and the canton isn’t happy.
 
Speaking to the paper, a spokesman said the canton felt the 800,000 franc fee was not proportional to the actual costs incurred. 
 
Now, after failing to come to an agreement with the surveillance body, Aargau plans to contest the bill in Switzerland’s highest civil court.
 
Though the bill came from the federal authorities, the justice office said it gets none of the fee itself, and that most of it would go to the mobile phone network operators that provided the data.  
 
The canton was informed before it requested the data that a fee would be incurred, said the paper, but chose to give priority to catching the murderer and clarify the costs later.
 
The case is expected to be heard in court this summer – and it will be the first time anything related to the Rupperswil murders goes before a court, since the trial of the accused has not yet begun. 
 

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CRIME

‘Your permit is invalid’: How scammers in Switzerland target foreigners

Scores of foreign residents have received an email recently telling them their residency rights in Switzerland have been revoked.

Published: 26 April 2024 11:17 CEST
'Your permit is invalid': How scammers in Switzerland target foreigners

A number of foreign nationals, especially in the German-speaking part of the country, have received an official-looking letter, purportedly from the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) informing them that the Free Movement of People agreement between Switzerland and the EU has been nullified, and therefore “your residence permit is no longer valid.”

Faced with enquiries from concerned recipients, SEM responded that the letter is fake, advising recipients to ignore it and, above all, not to click on the QR code on the top.

“Fake letters from the SEM have been circulating since the beginning of this week,” the immigration authority said on its website as well as on X (formerly Twitter).  

“The letter has no impact on the recipient’s  residence status,” SEM added.

Fake jobs, real threats

However, this is only the latest scam perpetrated in the name of SEM.

There have been others in the past.

For instance, many foreigners have also received emails from addresses swissimmigration@consultant or eu_immigration@consultant, that pretend to be the Swiss immigration authority.

“In most cases, a fictitious job in the hotel industry is offered, with the senders demanding payment of 300 to 1,000 euros for a permit in Switzerland and for health and accident insurance,” SEM reported.

The first clue that this email doesn’t come from  SEM, which is part of Switzerland’s government, is that it is asking for payment in euros. If the scammers were smarter, they’d demand Swiss francs.

“These e-mails do not come from the SEM and should be considered as an attempt at fraud,” the agency said. 

Extortion attempt

And a few years ago, a number of foreigners received emails coming allegedly from SEM, Swiss border control authorities, or even the Federal Office of Police (Fedpol).

They threatened to revoke the victim’s residence permit or even expel them from the country altogether if they didn’t pay a certain sum of money into an anonymous account.

Needless to say, no government authority would ever resort to blackmail or demand payment for such ‘services’.

So a good rule to remember (for foreigners and Swiss alike) is that if threats and pressure are involved, letters / emails / phone calls ( WhatsUp messages are more than likely scams.
 
READ ALSO: The common scams foreigners in Switzerland need to be aware of 

Don’t respond

SEM as well as police urge everyone contacted by scammers, by whatever means to:

  • Ignore these messages by hanging up the phone and / or deleting emails, moving them to the Spam folder
  • Never give out your credit card number or bank account information to people you don’t know
  • If you did give your card number, contact your credit card company immediately to have the card blocked. Likewise, if you gave out your banking details, get in touch with your bank.
  • In the event of threats of extortion attempts, consider filing a criminal complaint. You can search for police stations in your area on the Police website. 
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