We shed light on the various illegal practices that threaten Swiss financial institutions. Be careful, you are concerned too.
What frauds? What are the consequences?
You are a business and a loan is critical to your survival. You are short on cash, you have invested heavily and creditors expect timely repayment for their services and supplies.
In some cases, and this applies to larger companies as well, the results are embellished and do not reflect reality. Turnover revised upwards, margins altered, the valuation of property overvalued, inventories inflated... The bank that analyzes your loan application is based on a distorted picture of the health of your company.
The credit is granted, the scheduled repayments are not made, the money disappears. This is accounting fraud. Think Enron in 2001 or Wirecard in 2019. We are talking about billions sunk into this type of fraud.
What does this have to do with me?
Two words are enough to understand the impact this can have on your projects: General contractor.
You build, you take out a mortgage or a construction loan. Be vigilant and take all the precautions at your disposal to validate the true financial health of the general contractor in charge of your real estate project.
Let's imagine an even more insidious scenario. A company asks its bank to collect debts owed by customers. The financial institution advances the money, so to speak, and is responsible for recovering the funds from the debtors concerned. This service is, of course, subject to fees charged by the bank.
Let us now imagine that the creditors are accomplices of the customer who requested the advance from his bank. The result? The bank advances the amount of money, the creditors are suddenly unreachable, and the customer is nowhere to be found after cashing out the funds.
This is called discount fraud.
Now let's go fishing.
You've probably heard of phishing. Scammers are weaving a vast digital net to retrieve as much confidential information as possible.
How?
You simply receive an email inviting you to click on a link that you think is interesting. The sender makes you a tempting offer, the opportunity is great and after all, you are not going to miss an opportunity to take advantage of it?
However, the link you click allows malware to be dropped.
Your accounts are hacked, your passwords are discovered, and within a few hours, your credit card, identity, and accounts are accessed.
Scammers are now going a step further and rather than betting on a mass effect, they are targeting their victims. Business mail, personal data used, direct phone calls, pretending to be your bank or state... Everything is done to appear credible, serious and reliable.
This is called spearphishing. One in four companies is confronted with it.
What does this have to do with me?
The risk is obvious and twofold.
As an individual, you take the risk of giving access to your private data. In some cases, financial institutions and credit card companies cover this risk. However, this is not systematic and the damage caused is both financial and psychological.
Double because if you have a position of responsibility in your company, you can be confronted with this kind of practice and take an unfortunate initiative that will result in your dismissal.
Priority is therefore given to caution and careful verification of the sender or interlocutor.
Sometimes fraud is as simple as that. You receive an invoice that looks similar to the one you receive monthly or annually. The practice has similarities to spearfishing in being targeted and appearing credible.
A scammer finds an invoice in a trash can and sets up a fake asking you to make a bank deposit.
However, the account is fraudulent and your payment is not recoverable. Mistakes are quickly made.
This is called bank transfer fraud.
How to protect yourself?
The preventive approach can be summarized as a thorough check of the messages, invoices and letters received.
Is this your usual contact person ?
Do you know the sender?
Is the bank account for a transfer the one saved in your bank payment app?
Does an email come from Switzerland or a third country?
Do you have up-to-date anti-virus software?
Do you have a two- or three-factor authentication system for accessing your credit card or bank account?
So many questions to ask yourself to avoid falling for it.
Financial institutions have departments and experts dedicated to preventing such fraud. Risk and compliance professionals carry out regular checks on internal procedures and put in place processes that their colleagues such as bankers, advisors, insurers, etc. must subscribe.
However, you remain the first filter, the first firewall, the best guarantee that malicious people cannot steal your information and use it illegally.
Is my credit safe?
Having a partner who will be able to guide and advise you is precious.
Avoid so-called specialists who require payment in advance or cover administrative costs such as application fees. None of that at Milenia.
Trust a recognized company, with a large network of leading partners and which benefits from serious testimonials and a verifiable quality rating.
Rely on a platform that respects privacy rules and takes the necessary measures to ensure the proper use of your personal information. In particular, the GDPR conditions represent the minimum threshold to be respected for any serious company; These conditions have recently been updated in Switzerland for Swiss players and which already exceed the strictest European rules in this area.
Your projects deserve to be taken care of in complete confidence and confidentiality. If you'd like to know more, run a simulation on our financing platform or give us a call.
We will be able to reassure you and we will be happy to welcome you and discuss with you to carry out your projects in complete safety.
