The Police warns citizens to be especially careful about telephone scams through a social networking application, where scammers falsely impersonate members of the Cyprus Police.
According to a complaint submitted today to the Nicosia Police Department, a 52-year-old resident of Nicosia responded to a video call he received from an unknown person through an electronic social networking application, with the latter falsely pretending to be communicating on behalf of the Immigration Department, citing the processing of a specific procedure. During the conversation, the astute showed a fake police ID and managed to convince the 52-year-old to give him personal information as well as bank account details, extorting a significant amount of money from him.
The Police informs the public that they never communicate with citizens in this way. The public is called to be particularly careful, since the purpose of the fraudsters is to extract personal data and steal money from citizens' bank accounts.
As a protection measure, it is recommended that citizens avoid responding to the instructions they receive from fraudsters and not disclose their personal information and passwords to their bank and other online accounts.
In the event that citizens have been deceived and have declared their bank details to suspicious persons during such communication, they are urged to immediately inform the banking institution in which they maintain an account, to prevent theft of their money.
