Swiss-Nova: the polished scam sending fake bills across Switzerland

A scam does not need to look cheap to be a scam. In this case, it arrives in a tidy email, dressed up as a bill or a reminder, and claims that the recipient signed up for an AI service or a health consultation on swissnovachat.com or swissnovacare.com. Many of those contacted, unsurprisingly, know nothing about any such subscription. That is the point: confusion first, payment second, and perhaps a little panic in between.

The Federal Office for Cyber Security has now warned against both portals after receiving several reports from the public. Its message is plain enough to survive the age of polished fraud: the business model is to send invoices even though no corresponding subscription was ever concluded. The office advises people to ignore such messages, avoid clicking on any links and make no payments. Cybercrimepolice.ch, which specialises in internet crime, has also placed the sites on its warning list.

What makes the operation more irritating than inventive is its appearance of legitimacy. Both websites look professional, and when complaints are sent, they are answered. The replies even include supposed proof of when the subscription was allegedly taken out. Yet apart from the names, the sites have nothing to do with Switzerland. According to the imprint and other documents, the company behind them is Margot Brands Ltd, based in Hong Kong. As official Swiss representative, the sites name Price Waterhouse Coopers, or PWC. That claim, as it turns out, is false.

PWC has now drawn a clear line. In response to an enquiry from SRF consumer magazine Espresso, Price Waterhouse Coopers Switzerland said it is in no way working for the company or the two websites. It added that the naming of PWC as legal representative in Switzerland is incorrect and was done without its knowledge or consent. The firm considers the websites fraudulent and has already taken legal steps, with the aim of stopping the use of its name and having the sites removed.

The episode is a useful reminder of how modern fraud works. It no longer relies on clumsy spelling or obvious amateurism. It borrows the language of administration, the look of corporate respectability and, when convenient, the name of a reputable firm. That leaves the public with the unglamorous task of doing what too few people do: checking twice before paying once. In this case, the safest response is also the simplest one. Ignore the message, click nothing, pay nothing.

Written by Thorben Thiede thorben.thiede@alpineweekly.com