Online shopping scams hit western Switzerland

Fraudsters in western Switzerland are hijacking people's addresses to get their hands on goods they haven't paid for. (RTS, swissinfo.ch) 

The thieves order items online, opting to receive an invoice rather than paying up front. Through tracking information published by suppliers, they are able to find out the time of delivery and intercept the package at the designated address. The genuine resident, unaware that their address has been misused, later receives a bill for goods they have neither ordered nor received.

Elisabeth Schüller is a victim of such a scam. She received bills totalling hundreds of francs for items such as a helmet, clothes and perfumes that she had not selected. The only way to avoid having to foot the bill is to report the theft to the police. 

The Romandie Consumers’ Federation would like extra security measures built into postal orders, such as requiring the recipient’s phone number, to ensure that scams like this become a thing of the past.