By Timo Kirez
GENEVA (AA) – Nearly 80% of people over the age of 55 in Switzerland have faced a fraud attempt, with 20% of Swiss losing about 675 million Swiss francs (approximately $739 million) in the last five years, according to a study released Monday by the organization for the elderly.
The study published by Pro Senectute on its website estimates that annual losses amount to about 675 million Swiss francs, an increase of more than 60% over the first study conducted five years ago.
At that time, the damage total was estimated to be 400 million Swiss francs (about $415 million), it added.
According to the data, 78.2% have been confronted with a fraud attempt in the past five years. The frequency with which older people come into contact with criminal schemes is also striking, the report said.
While the majority of those affected recognized the fraud attempts as such, the organization reported that just under 20% of respondents were victims of the scam.
The study attributed the rise to the COVID-19 pandemic, saying the health crisis boosted digitization, opening up new opportunities for fraud.
Attempts to enrich themselves through cybercrime have almost doubled in the last five years in Switzerland and affected 52.3% of those surveyed in the study.
The most common scam attempts are the so-called grandkid trick, shock calls, and phishing emails.
In the grandchild or nephew trick, a fraudster poses as a close relative of an elderly person in order to obtain cash or valuables under false pretenses.
So-called shock calls are telephone calls in which an emergency situation of a family member is feigned in order to obtain larger amounts of money.
Most often, a serious traffic accident or other tragic event is faked as an emergency situation in order to claim that the money is needed for urgent treatment or surgery.