Since mid-October, the Bernese Cantonal Police have recorded an increase in fraudulent telephone calls in the Bernese Jura region. The authors use a new method which, in four cases, allowed them to obtain several thousand francs.
During these scam attempts, the criminals pretend to be police officers on the telephone. Pretending a problem with the injured parties’ bank card or their bank account, they told them to go to the nearest police station with their bank cards.
A second person, also posing as a police officer, waits for the victim near their home and accosts them, taking the card and pin code under the pretext of going to settle the matter.
Equipped with the bank card and the code, the perpetrators then go to the bank to withdraw money.
The Berne Cantonal Police regularly receives reports of telephone scams in the most varied forms, always by fake police officers. The latter now also express themselves in French. The perpetrators appear in civilian clothes.
Police advise people to be suspicious, hang up the phone and report the suspicious call. She specifies that she never asks for bank cards and/or codes. She invites us to circulate the call for caution, particularly among the elderly.
