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Supreme Court rules: Providers are not responsible for file sharing
by Florian Bodoky
An end to spam calls: Parliament instructs Federal Council to take measures
27.3.2026
Translation: machine translated
Fake Swiss numbers enable fraud. New rules should oblige suppliers to implement stricter controls and greater security.
Telephone fraud with manipulated Swiss numbers has become a real plague. So much so that there should now be a binding and concrete catalogue of measures to combat it. Last week, the National Council and Council of States adopted a motion by Martin Candinas, a member of the National Council from the centre. This obliges the Federal Council to take additional measures against so-called spoofing. The aim is to close regulatory and, above all, technical loopholes that fraudsters are currently exploiting.
What is spoofing?
In contrast to the typical anonymous call centre call, spoofing involves callers deliberately changing the displayed telephone number. As a result, a different, supposedly trustworthy number appears on your display. These are often Swiss landline or mobile numbers, sometimes even real numbers of companies or private individuals. However, these numbers have nothing to do with the call (a frightening example was reported by the Luzerner Zeitung in January). Fraudsters or particularly aggressive call centres are behind this.
How is this possible? Technically, the problem is based on weaknesses in international telephony, especially with VoIP connections. The transmitted phone numbers can be manipulated relatively easily if they are not consistently verified. As many calls are made via foreign networks, Swiss protection mechanisms are only effective to a limited extent.
The result: fraudsters can impersonate the police, bank or authorities and thus build up trust. The aim is usually to persuade you to make payments or obtain access data.
Several million filtered calls in Switzerland - too few
Telecommunications providers in Switzerland already filter a large proportion of these calls. According to their own information, they block millions of calls every month that are categorised as suspicious or clearly fraudulent.
Despite these filters, users continue to receive numerous calls. One of the reasons for this is that the numbers used are constantly changing and new technical methods are being used to circumvent existing protection mechanisms.
Source: Shutterstock
With the adopted motion, Parliament is now calling for additional, binding measures. At the centre of this is the obligation for suppliers to use systems to authenticate telephone numbers. These should ensure that a displayed number actually originates from the network to which it is assigned. If such confirmation is missing or negative, calls should be blocked or at least clearly labelled.
Another measure has already been in force since 1 January - the so-called spoofing filter. Telecoms suppliers are supposed to systematically recognise when, for example, a call from a Swiss number originates in a foreign network. Such calls should not be delivered in the first place.
To make this easier, so-called transit providers must identify calls that originate from abroad but have a Swiss number. Only then can they forward them to the local telephone provider. The Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM) reports positive results from Austria, where this measure has already been in place for some time and has apparently led to a sharp decline in such calls.
Federal Council must now act
With the clear approval in both chambers, implementation is now up to the Federal Council. It must draw up concrete proposals on how the required technical standards and regulatory adjustments can be implemented.
This also involves harmonisation with international standards and cooperation with foreign network operators. As a large proportion of fraudulent calls originate from abroad, the effectiveness of the measures depends heavily on such cooperation. It is likely to be several months before a concrete proposal is submitted for consultation.
Header image: Shutterstock
I've been tinkering with digital networks ever since I found out how to activate both telephone channels on the ISDN card for greater bandwidth. As for the analogue variety, I've been doing that since I learned to talk. Though Winterthur is my adoptive home city, my heart still bleeds red and blue.
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