The Police are investigating two new cases of online fraud following relevant complaints.
Specifically, two individuals aged 72 and 39 from Nicosia and Paphos respectively, reported to the Police that they had fallen victim to online cryptocurrency fraud.
In the first case, a 72-year-old man showed interest in an online advertisement regarding investing money 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 online bank to transfer the amount of €250 to a bank account abroad for investment purposes, which was returned to the 72-year-old as profit.
The 72-year-old gave the unknown man access three more times for the amounts of €1,000, €7,500 and €40,000 for investment purposes.
The complainant realized that he had fallen victim to online fraud when, after an inspection carried out by a relative, they determined that the specific platform was virtual.
In the second case, a 39-year-old man located a specific website on the internet and decided to invest money in cryptocurrencies.
After contacting the specific website himself, he came into contact with a woman who told him that she was speaking on behalf of the above website.
The complainant was convinced to invest money and sent cryptocurrencies worth a total of €12,448 from his cryptocurrency account 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 the specific investment be transferred to his account, he was asked to pay again amounts of money which allegedly related to the repayment of expenses. The complainant paid the amounts, however, the unknown persons continued to ask for additional money, as a result of which he realized that he had fallen victim to fraud. The total amount lost by the complainant amounts to approximately €26,400.
The Economic Crime Investigation Branch is investigating the above cases.
