Filenews 18 January 2022 - by Michalis Hadjivasilis
In recent days, online frauds have seen an upsurge, with the public in Cyprus being bombarded with misleading messages, designed to respond and "step on" it, and for people to give in to the demands of international fraudsters.
The head of the Office of Combating Cybercrime Andreas Anastasiades spoke about the upsurge of the phishing phenomenon, where deft people try in various ways to fool unsuspecting people to give in to the instructions they give for easy profit. In recent days, three banks in Cyprus have been "suffering" from complaints from their customers who receive e-mails, allegedly from their bank, which falsely tells them that their account has been temporarily blocked. In fact, the cunning in order to become more convincing say to them: "Dear customer, .... The Bank has improved security measures for online transactions and requires mandatory confirmation on your part. Follow these steps to reactivate online features." The grotesque thing is that they send such messages to people who do not have accounts in such a bank.
In other cases, a like in a store was enough for the person who did it to immediately accept in his e-mail a message, that he supposedly has a gift from that company and is given instructions on how to receive it. The aim is to pay the transport to receive the gift, so that the illegals can pinch even the small amount that will be paid. As Mr. Anastasiades explained to "F", because the amounts requested are small, some people are convinced and give them. He added that some abroad have managed to hack the e-mails address of various organizations and as a result sell them to illegals to send messages and expect some to "pinch" for profit. Mr. Anastasiades advised the public to be careful not to open such messages and to address his bank for information.
At the same time, in recent days, the Electronic Crime Subdivision has received many complaints about false and misleading social media posts containing malicious software programs and viruses.
