Geneva police are warning the public to look out for phishing scams after a number of Geneva residents received official-looking letters or emails claiming to be reminders of unpaid parking ticket fines.
However, these communications are actually phishing scams, police said in a press release.
The messages contain invoices that appear to be legitimate, but contain several suspicious elements, such as the absence of the recipient’s address, the presence of a QR code redirecting to a fraudulent website, and a fake reproduction of the official format used for payment reminders from the municipal police.
Authorities are therefore warning residents who have received such letters NOT TO scan the QR code or provide any personal information on the website given in the messages.
The police also issued the following advice:
- If you’ve received an official-looking email or text message saying that you have an unpaid fine, but you don’t think it applies to you, make sure you check the sender’s email address.
- Messages sent by the SDC contraventions service always end with @police.ge.ch.
- It also gave some examples of fraudulent email addresses to look out for: jaideep.vaidya@acm.co.in, sanjay.pawar@acm.co.in, and clickmember@surveymonkeyuser.com.
- Never click on any suspicious links that are asking you go to a payment portal to pay the fine.
- Block the sender and delete the email/text message
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If you’re at all worried, you can also email the office at contraventions@police.ge.ch, call them on +41 22 427 51 70 or visit one of their offices during working hours.
