Swiss police have reported a significant rise in the number of fraudulent online scams on the internet. The ruse - which involves a scammer pretending to represent Microsoft - has already tricked residents out of nearly 900.000 Swiss francs.

Users in Switzerland scammed out of thousands by "Microsoft" con

In a statement, police in Canton Fribourg said they had detected a new scam in Switzerland. The emergency services found that nearly 900.000 Swiss francs have already been stolen from online users in French-speaking Switzerland.

The scam involves an alarm or alert on the victim’s mobile phone or computer, informing them that Microsoft had detected a serious virus on their device that needed to be contained. The fraudsters would then convince the victim to hand over control of their electronic device, giving them access to Swiss bank accounts, crucial files and personal information.

Hundreds of online fraud cases reported in Switzerland so far

So far, 280 cases of this kind of fraud have been reported to the police so far. The scams are mainly taking place on computers and phones on the west side of the Röstigraben.

Police called on people to remain vigilant when surfing the web and to never give personal data like passwords, residence permits, passports or bank details to someone they don’t know. Authorities also counselled against trusting official phone numbers immediately, as scammers are now able to mask their phone numbers to make it look like they are calling from an official phone line.