Since June 2019, Tutti.ch has placed two fake "Money Mule" ads on the platform itself. So far, over 130 people have already responded to the fake ads. Users who fall into the trap are always informed by Tutti.ch and made aware of the risks.    

In the two advertisements, jobs are advertised that offer good earnings with little effort in renowned companies. "Tutti.ch is a safe marketplace with over 16 million visitors per month and around 2 million advertisements. Unfortunately, the high user numbers also make the platform attractive to people with dishonest intentions. For this reason, we would like to increasingly actively sensitize our users to known scams, which fortunately are still the exception," explains Dejan Dojcinovic, CEO of Tutti.ch.

How "Money Mule" ads work

So-called "money mule" ads by scammers promise an easy-earned income: For example, users have to accept money for a supposedly reputable company into their own account and then transfer part of it to unknown accounts. Money of illegal origin is thus laundered through the online user's account and transferred abroad. In contrast to other online fraud attempts, the users who fall for this are not only victims, but also make themselves liable to prosecution as "money mules". More information on this topic is also available at Homepage of the Swiss Crime Prevention.

Among other things, Tutti.ch advises users never to forward money on behalf of third parties to recipients they do not know in detail and not to withdraw money from their own account after a transfer whose origin is not known beyond doubt. In addition, people should immediately report to the police if they suspect they have been the victim of fraud. The classifieds portal has published further security tips on the Website is switched on.

Cooperation with police to be expanded 

Tutti.ch has been working closely with the cybercrime and prevention departments of the Zurich cantonal police for several years to protect users and take security measures at an early stage. Particularly in the area of prevention, cooperation is to be expanded in order to educate users about fraud. In addition to the cooperation, an internal fraud team, among other things, takes care of fraud attempts.

Image: Swiss Crime Prevention
 

The spin-off of the regional media to CH Media shaped the half-year results of the NZZ Media Group. Total revenues still reached 110.3 million Swiss francs, compared to 203 million Swiss francs in the same period last year, NZZ announced on Tuesday.

Sales, adjusted for the effects of the change in the scope of consolidation and discontinued operations, increased by 2 percent. Revenue in the user market increased by the same percentage, driven by a 5 percent increase in paying customers since June 2018.

Total expenses decreased to 105 million Swiss francs compared with 190.4 million Swiss francs in the prior-year period. Lower direct costs and savings in headcount were offset by additional expenditures for strategic projects.

The pro-rata result at the CH Media joint venture amounted to CHF 2.9 million in the first half of the year. Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) fell to CHF 8.2 (previously 12.6) million and the Group result to CHF 9.4 (11.3) million.

Both the EBIT margin (7.4 percent compared to 6.2 percent in the prior-year period) and the return on sales (8.5 percent compared to 5.6 percent previously) improved. The effects of the change in consolidation also left their mark here.

For the second half of 2019, the NZZ Media Group aims to grow further in the user market. The focus remains on strategic initiatives and the transformation towards digital and mobile-first offerings.

The NZZ Group is continuing to apply the cost brakes. It will also consistently implement measures to increase efficiency. The Group expects the media environment to remain challenging in the coming months. (SDA)
 

In 2012, the three internet entrepreneurs Peter Schäppi, Peter Schürch and Peter Röthlisberger (ex-Blick Group) bought the company Brainspot with the flagship 50plus.ch and the three dating portals Date50.ch, Date50.de and Date50.at. Within five years, they increased the readership from 2000 unique clients to 150,000 unique clients. This makes the 50plus.ch portal by far the largest platform for the 50-plus generation in Switzerland. The focus is on information, entertainment and offers for people of this generation with topics from the areas of health, fitness, travel, leisure, partnership and lifestyle.

In 2013, the three founders expanded the group to include another portal in Germany, 50plus.de. "So it was high time to give the group a meaningful name," they wrote in a press release on Tuesday. "With the name 50Plus-Medien, we are also showing the outside world that we want to expand our market leadership in Switzerland in this target group," says Peter Röthlisberger (pictured above). The Group's headquarters will remain in Zumikon.

The special feature of the new TV box from Quickline: Apps such as Netflix, MySports, YouTube or Spotify are integrated directly into the box - and can be accessed at the touch of a button. To promote this TV experience, the Equipe agency launched a broad 360-degree campaign. The idea: Quickline brings the best from the world of entertainment and sports directly to the home. This is precisely what was literally staged in the campaign.

In a TV commercial, protagonists from sports, series and movies are delivered directly to the home in the Quickline van - causing big eyes and lots of joy.

The posters look into living room windows where unusual things are happening. In addition to TV and posters, the campaign is played out primarily online - with display banners and GIFs on social media. POS advertising materials, which draw attention to the new TV box in business outlets, are also an important part of the campaign. The campaign has been running since mid-August and is mainly present in rural areas of German-speaking Switzerland.

The Mictic wristband makes use of augmented reality. It produces sounds based on body movements and transmits them in real time to the associated app on the tablet or smartphone. Thanks to integrated sensors, multiple and different instruments can be played. A group of people can thus also function as a band.

The sounds range from classical cello sonatas to robot sounds. The interactive musical instrument is intended to support musicians and dancers in their work as composers and choreographers. The less traditional sounds of robots or lightsabers in particular offer potential for up-and-coming artists in this field.

Explaining the product in the picture had to be well thought out. How does it become clear to the viewer that the music comes from the wristband and was not simply added as a soundtrack in post-production? With the result, Mictic wanted to appeal primarily to a young, urban audience that doesn't watch long-winded explanatory films.

"The combination of explanatory elements together with a very modern and dynamic cut was the big challenge. But the editing was also enormously fun precisely because of that," says director and editor Alun Meyerhans, describing the process.

"After three years of intensive product development, we are finally ready for the final step, namely the development of a user-friendly smartphone app. In order to generate the necessary funds for this, we are now accepting our first pre-orders," says Rolf Hellat, founder and CEO of the Zurich-based startup Mictic. The young company has teamed up with the Swiss Startup Factory's Company Building Team to bring their product to market. The final product will be available from 2020.

The brand designer has developed the entire brand image, the new visual world of the practice and the website, which are not intended to be clinically cold, but modern, concise and elegant. 

The new look is consistent across all measures and was implemented under the direction of Catherine Martin in close collaboration with photographer Alessandra Leimer and web programmer Reto Knödlseder.

The IR 13 brings vacation travelers from the Rhine Valley to Zurich Airport on time and in comfort: This way, people leave parking worries and traffic problems far behind before departure and treat themselves to a direct, stress- and congestion-free journey to check-in. The current SBB summer campaign by Transformer gets to the heart of the fact that vacations thus begin even before departure - with posters, household mailings, display elements in train stations and sampling campaigns.

The film uses small thought experiments to question the current state of the economy and calls for a new understanding of the economy that shifts the focus away from money and towards more caring and the satisfaction of actual human needs.

The task of the short film is to draw the viewer's attention to the topic of "Care Work" which is given far too little consideration in today's economy. For this purpose, no concrete solutions are presented, but enough free space is provided to let interesting discourses arise. In addition, the film of the association is presented at podiums and other events.

Guave Motion took over the entire production for this short film. From conception to design and animation, everything comes from a single source. 

A major challenge in the production of the film was to break down the complex topic to less than six minutes and to supplement it with emotional story elements. In addition, special emphasis was placed on the full CGI dough style.

Nevertheless, in order to stand out from the classic stop-motion style, a higher frame rate was deliberately chosen, animated with corresponding accuracy and supplemented with cinematic camera angles and light settings.

Numerous user accounts had acted in a "coordinated manner" to spread messages about the protests in Hong Kong. As a result, 936 accounts were blocked.

Twitter is blocked in mainland China. According to the short message service, however, virtual private networks were used to conceal the user's actual location.

Facebook said it had blocked several pages, groups and user accounts with connections to China following a tip-off from Twitter. 

"Deceptive tactics" such as fake user accounts were used to spread messages about Hong Kong, explained Facebook's head of online security Nathaniel Gleicher. Investigations had revealed that there were links between the authors and the Chinese government.

Mass demonstrations for more democracy and against Beijing's growing influence have been taking place in Hong Kong for weeks. The Chinese government has recently made increasingly blatant threats to the demonstrators in the Special Administrative Region. (SDA)

In concrete terms, according to the Nielsen survey published on Tuesday, the retail trade in Switzerland generated sales of just under 33.8 billion Swiss francs last year, which corresponds to a slight increase of 1.5 percent.

The reason given by the study is that consumers shop more often and tend to make more impulse purchases: In total, the average Swiss household spent money on a purchase 165 times last year. According to Nielsen, an average of around CHF 38 worth of everyday products ended up in the shopping cart each time.

Although around 69 percent of consumers still plan their purchases in advance, impulse buying in stores is becoming increasingly popular. Such impulse purchases increased by 4 percent compared to the previous year, it said. In addition, 28 percent more bought private label in 2018 compared to the previous year, and for half of consumers, quality is important and a legitimate reason to pay more for quality products, it said.

In addition, the competition for customers' attention continues unabated, according to the "Nielsen Consumers 2019 Switzerland" report. At CHF 7.1 billion, gross advertising expenditure in 2018 was a whopping 16 percent higher than in the previous year. "In terms of the percentage share of advertising expenditure, out-of-home now takes first place with 36 percent, followed by TV and print media with 25 percent each. An exciting development in view of the intensified competition in the battle for the consumer's attention," says Klaas Louis Springer, Market Leader of Nielsen in Switzerland. (SDA/pd/swi)

In order to make more young people aware of the advantages of an apprenticeship as an electrician or commercial clerk, Festland has created an additional benefit together with EWB: From now on, all apprentices will receive their own e-scooter.

The new scooter fleet has been on the road in Buchs since mid-August. The special job benefit is also the focus of the recruiting campaign created by Festland with ads on Snapchat and Instagram, posters and flyers at schools, and a trailer video on the apprenticeship portal Yousty.

In collaboration with the Hamburg-based think tank Responsive Acoustics (ReAct), which specializes in sound and communication concepts, more than 350 customers and pharmacy employees were surveyed.

"For companies in 'high-trust environments' such as banks or pharmacies, the perception of the attributes of trust and security are particularly decisive for purchasing behavior," says ReAct Managing Director Wilbert Hirsch. "Our study therefore focused on the question of whether this perception can be positively influenced by acoustic room staging."

Two aspects were examined: How the customer perceives the background noise in the pharmacy and how comfortable they feel during their visit. In both cases, customers rated their visit more positively when specially composed music was playing in the background. The background noise in the pharmacy was perceived as safer and thus created a special atmosphere of trust. On a scale of 1 (low) to 10 (high), the average score was 8.81. Customers who were interviewed during a music break rated the atmosphere of trust significantly lower. The retail experts at the University of Cologne found similar results for the perception of well-being.

"Those who feel comfortable stay longer, are more likely to buy and will be happy to come back"

ReAct develops suitable soundscapes for the most diverse types of stores or goods - acoustic background music without vocals, in which sound color plays a decisive role alongside volume and frequency. "40 percent of all environmental impressions are perceived through the ears. We use a very special form of acoustic spatial staging that is played just above human perception. The tempo of our soundscapes is significantly lower than that of the pop music that has often been used in the past," explains ReAct founder and film music composer Hirsch.

Monika Imschloss from the Seminar for Retail and Customer Management at the University of Cologne also confirms that the general conditions are crucial for shopping. "Customers react sensitively to the background noise in a store. The sound atmosphere has a decisive influence on their purchasing behavior. In short: those who feel comfortable stay longer, are more likely to buy and will be happy to return."

However, not only customers, but also the pharmacy employees surveyed appreciate relaxing background music. Almost two thirds of them would like to see soundscapes used at their workplace in the future. The musical setting has a positive effect on the mood of employees. They feel more at ease, are more relaxed and can interact even better with customers.