by In Switzerland it is possible to order goods online without paying up front. Retailers will send orders with a payment slip included with the goods. Fraudsters are exploiting this quirk of Swiss postal retail. Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.comFraudsters order goods online pretending to be someone else. The goods are then shipped without the need to provide any payment details. The fraudster then waits for the order to be delivered and takes it from the unsuspecting victim’s mailbox. Eventually, the victim gets a payment reminder for something they never ordered and which appears to have never arrived. In French-speaking Switzerland around a thousand complaints related to the practice were made last year, according to an investigation by RTS. Payment after delivery is very
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Investec considers the following as important: Editor's Choice, Mail fraud Switzerland, Personal finance, shopping
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In Switzerland it is possible to order goods online without paying up front. Retailers will send orders with a payment slip included with the goods. Fraudsters are exploiting this quirk of Swiss postal retail.
Fraudsters order goods online pretending to be someone else. The goods are then shipped without the need to provide any payment details. The fraudster then waits for the order to be delivered and takes it from the unsuspecting victim’s mailbox. Eventually, the victim gets a payment reminder for something they never ordered and which appears to have never arrived.
In French-speaking Switzerland around a thousand complaints related to the practice were made last year, according to an investigation by RTS.
Payment after delivery is very popular in Switzerland. Some large online Swiss retailers charge a third to half of their customers this way.
The people committing this kind of fraud often live near their victims, given the need to keep an eye out for parcel deliveries. Typically, not all orders are intercepted by the scammer. Some tend to eventually slip through, leaving victims with the task of returning goods they never ordered.
Victims are not required to pay for the fraudulently purchased goods. However, they must go through the administrative pain of sorting out the mess it creates.
More on this:
RTS article (in French) – Take a 5 minute French test now
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