Two new cases of online fraud are being investigated by the Police after relevant complaints.
Specifically, two persons aged 72 and 39 from Nicosia and Paphos respectively, reported to the Police that they were victims of online cryptocurrency fraud.
For the first case, a 72-year-old man showed interest in an online advertisement involving money investments in cryptocurrencies.
An unknown man contacted the 72-year-old who introduced himself as a financial advisor for a company and suggested that he invest money in cryptocurrencies with a return of large profits. The complainant accepted the proposal and installed a specific application on his computer with which he gave the unknown man access to his electronic bank to transfer the amount of €250 to a bank account abroad for investment purposes, which was returned to the 72-year-old as a profit.
The 72-year-old gave access to the unknown man three more times for the amounts of €1,000, €7,500 and €40,000 for investment purposes.
The complainant realized that he was a victim of online fraud when an inspection carried out by a relative found that the platform in question was virtual.
In the second case, a 39-year-old man spotted a specific website on the internet and decided to invest money in cryptocurrencies.
After contacting the specific website himself, he contacted a woman who told him that she was speaking on behalf of the above website.
The complainant was persuaded to invest money and sent from the cryptocurrency account he maintains, cryptocurrencies with a total value of €12,448, to a specific account indicated to him by the unknown woman, to whom he gave remote access to his computer.
Subsequently, after the complainant requested that the profits from this investment be transferred to his account, he was asked to repay sums of money which allegedly related to the reimbursement of expenses. The complainant paid the amounts, however the strangers continued to ask for additional money, as a result of which he realized that he was a victim of fraud. The total amount lost by the complainant amounts to approximately €26,400.
The Financial Crime Investigation Branch investigates the above cases.
