300,000 francs stolen from Valais company with CEO fraud
Published: Wednesday, Jan 24th 2024, 13:10
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Unknown perpetrators have once again stolen several hundred thousand francs from a Valais company in a so-called CEO scam. They pretended to be the CEO and ordered the money to be paid out.
A company in central Valais lost around 300,000 francs in this way last week, as the Valais cantonal police announced on Wednesday. A criminal investigation has been initiated, it said.
CEO fraud is when fraudsters pretend to be the CEO of a company and demand payment of a large sum of money from employees by e-mail or telephone calls. This happens, for example, under the pretext of a confidential company takeover or the opening of a new bank account. The perpetrators insist that the payment remains secret and is made as quickly as possible.
Several cases since September
Since last September, several companies in Valais have been defrauded of large sums of money using this scam. Now the cantonal police are once again calling on companies to exercise caution. They recommend not to provide any information when contacted in an unusual way and to have the request for payment confirmed by superiors.
The police also advise companies to introduce internal control procedures. Employees should also be made aware of this form of fraud.
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