Brazen thieves lure senior citizens into phone boxes

Con artists don't always resort to the latest technology. Western Switzerland is seeing an increasing number of cases connected to phone boxes. Most victims are elderly, and a fake emergency is staged to get hold of their credit cards.

18.07.2017 – Lost in thought, 78-year-old Jacqueline Fournier* was walking along the street to the old part of the city. A woman suddenly came up and spoke to her, appearing quite agitated. She claimed she was stuck because her car had broken down and she had no way of contacting a breakdown service. “Stupidly”, she didn't have her mobile phone with her and she didn't have any change on her, either. And her small child was stuck waiting in the car.

“The situation seemed serious – she was in a hurry”, remembers Fournier. “I offered to let the lady use my mobile to make a call.” But she politely declined. She said: “There's a phone box just on the corner.”

Phoning with a credit card
The pensioner followed the con woman to the phone box and was told that you could also make a call using a credit card. In the heat of the moment, Fournier was persuaded to insert her credit card into the slot and enter her PIN unprotected. Now knowing the PIN, the con woman kept the elderly lady talking and distracted her while she stole her credit card.

“But where is my card?”, asked Fournier when she noticed it was gone. “Oh no!”, said the con woman. “The machine has swallowed your card.” But it shouldn't be a problem. All she had to do was wait fifteen minutes. Then she would get a call from Swisscom and the problem would be solved, she said. But she had to hurry off for the breakdown service. After all, her child was still waiting in the car.

But in fact, the lady gave the card and PIN straight to an accomplice, who immediately withdrew lots of cash from various ATM's. Meanwhile, the pensioner waited in vain for Swisscom to call. It was way too late when she finally realised that she was the victim of con artists.

High losses
Jaqueline Fournier is not alone. Police in Western Switzerland know of dozens of cases last year where mainly elderly people were conned by this scam. Con artists have brought about losses of over 100'000 Swiss francs in the Canton of Geneva alone.

* Name changed

Tips for the general public:

• Never give your credit card to someone else for making a phone call!
• Emergency calls (117, 118, 144) made from public phone boxes are always free of charge.
• You don't need to enter a PIN to make a phone call.
• Don't let anyone pressure you!
• Tell the Police right away if you think that you might have come across con artists!