The Federal Office of Cybersecurity (FOCS) is raising the alarm about fraudulent job offers published on the fake websites of supposed Swiss companies.
“People who are looking for work – especially those who are currently unemployed – often do everything they can to secure a job,” the FOCB said. “Scammers exploit this by making false promises and deliberately taking advantage of their trust.”
Furthermore, these unscrupulous individuals are not merely inventing fake Swiss companies; “they are also imitating existing ones and even publish job offers in newspapers and on specialised websites,” it added.
New twist on an old scam
According to the FOCB, early versions of these fake job offers mainly targeted positions in the hotel sector – that is, primarily foreign nationals.
Applicants who showed interest in the ads were asked to make an upfront payment of between EUR 300 and 1,000 – for example, for a supposed Swiss work permit.
“These offers were mainly posted on Italian job platforms and, more recently, on Greek ones as well,” the FOCB says.
The most current version of the scam involves tasks such as writing reviews, purchasing products, recommending fashion items or testing apps.
“After being recruited, unsuspecting victims are directed to a platform supposedly operated by the company, where ‘salary payments’ and ‘bonuses’ are said to be managed. In reality, however, any earnings are only credited within the platform itself,” – which means people performing these tasks never get the money.
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This is where these criminals become even more sinister.
As the available tasks dwindle down to zero, users are encouraged – in order to keep working and avoid waiting for new tasks – to pay a fee to generate additional assignments.
“The rude awakening comes when they try to withdraw their earnings,” the FOCB says. “The platform operators repeatedly demand further payments, claiming these are required to release the funds – until the victims realise they have been scammed.”
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But that’s not all.
Another scheme involves impersonating legitimate Swiss companies which don’t have a website..
The scammers then create a fictitious site, prominently displaying the supposed job openings.
Not only that, but scammers also post fake job offers on legitimate job portals.
“The FOCS has even documented cases where these fraudulent job ads were published in print newspapers. This phenomenon is unprecedented,” it said.
“Most of the time the scammers manage to obtain, at the very least, the candidate’s personal data, which can then be used for fraudulent purposes.”
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This is how you should protect yourself from falling prey to these criminals, according to the FOCS.
- Ignore such messages.
- Do not respond to job offers that require advance payment.
- If you have already made contact, break it off immediately. Do not reply to any further messages from the scammers.
- Be cautious of any payments you are asked to make while carrying out the job.
- If you have suffered a financial loss, you should report it to the police. You can find your nearest police station on the Suisse ePolice website (available in German, French and Italian).
- If a job offer sounds too good to be true, it probably is, especially if it involves simple tasks for unusually high pay.
READ MORE: The common scams foreigners in Switzerland need to be aware of
