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Swiss man kidnapped in Zurich ‘is vaccine commission chief’

A Swiss man briefly abducted last month by a German, before his kidnapper was shot dead by police near Zurich, is the head of Switzerland's federal vaccination commission, local media reported Saturday.

Published: 10 April 2022 10:06 CEST

Swiss man kidnapped in Zurich 'is vaccine commission chief'

A file photo of a police car in Zurich. Photo: Wikipedia Commons

The information gives a completely different twist on the case.

The 38-year-old German had been wanted since March 31 by the authorities after abducting a man in the canton of Zurich.

The police did not communicate about the case until the German was shot dead this week, and did not give the identity of the abductee.

But according to several Swiss media outlets, including the Tagesanzeiger daily and the Heidi.news website, the victim of the abduction is the head of the Federal Commission for Vaccinations (CFV).

The motive for the abduction remains unclear.

According to the Swiss online news site Watson, the German abductor had been in close contact with conspiracy theorists.

He was killed on Wednesday night when police tried to arrest him.

Before being shot and killed he pulled out a gun and killed a 28-year-old woman, believed to be his girlfriend, according to police.

According to the Swiss news agency ATS, a 34-year-old Swiss man was arrested on Thursday and is believed to be linked to the abduction.

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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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