Police are investigating two new cases of online fraud and theft of large sums of money, following complaints filed today with the Limassol and Paphos Cybercrime Units.

According to the complaint filed by a 50-year-old man at the Limassol Cybercrime Unit, on July 11 he received an email — an email that deceptively resembled a message from the bank where he holds an account, stating that he needed to update his bank account information.

Following the instructions in the message, the 50-year-old granted access to his online banking account, resulting in the fraudsters siphoning off from his bank accounts a total of 29,599 euros, which was transferred to accounts at banks abroad.

The case is being investigated by the Financial Crime Investigation Office of the Limassol CID.

According to a complaint filed by a 48-year-old woman with the Paphos CID last April, she found an investment website online and registered with it. After registering, she was contacted by an unknown man who claimed to be a representative of the company that owns the website and convinced her to grant him remote access to her computer so that he could help her invest her money.

Following the instructions of the unknown suspect, between April and June, the 48-year-old transferred a total of 26,429 euros to various bank accounts at foreign banks, which the suspect had directed her to.

Later, however, the 48-year-old woman suspected she had been defrauded when she was asked to pay 5,000 euros to secure her investment, as well as when she requested a refund of 1,,000 euros of her own money and the suspect claimed that this would result in her losing all of her investment funds and urged her to transfer more money, ostensibly for investment purposes.

The case is being investigated by the Financial Crime Investigation Office of the Paphos CID.

In light of these new reports of fraud, the police are once again urging the public to exercise caution. It is emphasized that granting access to electronic devices via remote connection, as well as access to online accounts, should be avoided, while personal information and bank account details must be protected and never disclosed to anyone.

It is recommended that citizens always verify any claims or reports they receive via online messages or phone calls from unknown individuals. Such verification should be conducted through the official and publicly known communication channels of the relevant organizations.

Citizens are also urged to deal only with recognized companies and licensed financial investment advisors when conducting any online transactions or investments.