Seco warns against address book fraud
The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) has received numerous complaints about address book fraud in recent weeks. Seco warns against fax messages that have turned out to be register fraud.
The warning concerns according to Seco:
Localsearch Switzerland - Business Directorie Suisse - Elmach Print Service
Seco writes: "This 'company' contacts victims by phone or email and asks them to renew/update their listing by signing a form and returning it by fax. It provides the contacted companies with misleading information that can mislead these companies by causing confusion with the local.ch, search.ch and localsearch.ch directories operated by Swisscom Directories SA."
Even if the fax number to which the form is to be returned is sometimes Swiss, this company is not based in Switzerland.
Attention!
Any person returning the signed form would be entering into a paid contract with a minimum duration of two years. After that, the victim would receive an invoice from Elmach Print Service for a total amount of more than 1,500 Fr. Finally, a Swiss debt collection company would send him threats of debt collection.
According to Article 3 para. 1 letter p of the Federal Act against Unfair Competition (UCA), offer forms or correction offers for entries in directories of any kind must meet certain form and content requirements, Seco further writes. The State Secretariat is of the opinion that the forms used by the above-mentioned "company" do not comply with these legal requirements. Source: Seco
More info is available in the brochure "Beware of address book swindlers!" to find.
