The Swiss army sent bizarre text messages to 27,000 people

Image: KEYSTONE

During the night from Wednesday to Thursday, more than 20,000 (former) members of the army received an unusual SMS. The army apologizes for this blunder which caused great confusion.

04.10.2024, 11:4804.10.2024, 13:44

Lara KnuchelFollow me

A reader of watson was very surprised when he received a text message shortly after four in the morning. The sender, who was none other than the army, wrote:

“You have received a new message on www.portal-armee.ch. Sincerely, your army”

Army members receive text messages from the army

Image: watson reader

Our reader says:

“I finished the army several years ago. So I assumed it was another scam or spam and ignored it without opening the SMS”

The message seemed strange, our reader continues. But later in the day, an email was added to the text message. He then took a closer look at the text message and realized that it was actually from the Swiss army.

“The message came from the same number through which I received my actual marching orders. There was always the old history of the cat”

So he still clicked on the link, which took him to an army portal “where he had to register with his AVS number to be able to consult the message”. But that’s not all: a message appeared telling him he would receive a letter – “to finalize my registration.”

Many (ex-)soldiers concerned

During the day on Thursday, it turned out that the ex-soldier was not the only one to have received this famous SMS and the email that followed. Several of his former army colleagues came forward in a common Whatsapp group:

“Everyone who reacted had also received them. Most also considered them spam.

The army apologizes

Should SMS be taken seriously? And how many people in Switzerland are potentially affected? watson inquired with the army and spokesperson Mathias Volken confirms the error.

“Due to a technical problem in the context of the release of the digital marching order, notifications by SMS and e-mail were sent in error on Thursday morning to the military by the ‘Portal-armee.ch’ platform .”

Service members who received the notification in error are people who are not yet “registered on the service manager. They can ignore the notification, there is no need to act,” said Mathias Volken.

He added that the error had been identified in the meantime and would be corrected immediately.

“The army apologizes to those concerned for the inconvenience caused”

The message was sent to approximately 27,000 military personnel in total. “Among them there were also people who received the notification in error – the number is not known at the moment,” the army spokesperson said.

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