The criminals pretend to be customer service and steal 2,500 francs from a Tutti.ch customer.
Regula Mayer (name changed) did not think it was possible to become a victim of scammers herself. “Looking back, it is almost impossible for me to understand how I was able to respond to that.” And yet it happened. The single mother lost 2,500 francs.
Everything happened very quickly.
Regula Mayer's 17-year-old daughter wanted to sell a keyboard on Tutti.ch for 75 francs. “She has her own Tutti account,” the mother says. Just a few minutes after the daughter listed the keyboard for sale, she received two follow-up messages to her customer account. She said the keyboard had been seized “as part of a secure payment programme”. In order to receive the payment, she must perform an “identity verification process” using the link provided.
legend:
Under some pretext, victims are asked to undergo an “identity verification process.”
SRF
The daughter showed her the news. Looking back, Regula Meyer says: “If I had taken the time to read these things carefully, this probably wouldn't have happened to me. But it all happened so quickly – I was in the door and my mind was already busy with appointments in the afternoon.
Shame and anger
So the mother and daughter followed the scammers' instructions and entered the mother's credit card details using the link provided – believing it was necessary to receive the payment. “I was sure: it all came from Totti!” When the two-factor authentication code arrived via SMS, the mother also entered it. “It was only at that moment that I realized what was happening.”
It was too late: the scammers had deducted 2,500 francs from her credit card. The transfer was made to the amount mentioned in the text message: “9780.0 dirhams”. AED is an abbreviation for dirham, the currency of the United Arab Emirates. “For me, the anger at myself and the shame are at least as bad as the frustration of losing money,” Regula Mayer says. “I have now experienced first-hand how quickly this can happen, and I am shocked that this could happen to me.”
Tutti.ch has known about Masche for a short time
The fact that criminals are pretending to be “Totti Customer Service” is new. When asked by Tutti.ch, it said that this scam had been known for about four weeks. It's trolling. It is unknown how many Tutti customers were actually affected as a result.
legend:
Scammers use letters written in Tutti's name to scam their victims.
SRF
Every week we receive about 80 reports from sellers about generally suspicious events. This could also impact other scams, not just those involving Tutti's fake customer service. The company stresses that it never requests credit card details from customers.
No goodwill from Cembra Money Bank
Since the scammers in this case had their victim release the payment using an authentication code, Regula Meier was likely harmed. Cembra Money Bank told Espresso that the fraudulent transaction “would have been recognized by the customer.” This is due to the amount mentioned in dirhams and due to the name of the merchant which is also included in the authentication SMS. However, the customer agreed to pay.
It remains to be seen whether Cembra Money Bank generally does not exercise good faith in such cases. Each will be “carefully examined” and “individually evaluated.” However, it can be assumed that the company does not want to set a precedent.
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