The Police are investigating a new case of online fraud, following a complaint by a 51-year-old woman.
As the complainant complained to the Limassol CID today, on November 29, 2021, she had placed an order for six dining chairs from a specific store located in a foreign country.
On January 3, the 51-year-old woman received an email, through which she was asked to proceed with the payment of the bill for the six chairs, through a transfer to a specific bank account. The complainant followed the instructions she received via that message and proceeded to pay the invoice.
However, today the 51-year-old woman had a telephone conversation with the sales manager of the supplier company, who informed her that her company never requested that payment be made to that bank account and never received the funds for the payment.
The complainant's complaint indicates that this is invoice fraud, which is a widespread form of electronic fraud. In this form of fraud, fraudsters approach a business or individual and, posing as a supplier or service provider, they request that the information for future invoice payments be changed; that is, they request that the payee's bank account details be changed and that any new payments be made in accordance with the new details. As a result, the money from the payment of the invoices ends up with the fraudsters.
If you receive instructions to change the way you pay invoices from a supplier or partner, before proceeding with the payment, check whether these instructions actually come from the payee.
Contact the payee by phone to verify these instructions. For this contact, use a telephone number from a previous contact. Never use the contact information provided in the message through which you were given the new, suspicious instructions.
If you find anything suspicious, immediately inform the Police and the Cybercrime Branch at 22-808200 or via the online cybercrime complaint form at https:/cybercrime.police.gov.cy/police/CyberCrime.nsf/subscribe_gr/subscribe_gr?Ope nForm .
For more information about this or other forms of online fraud, you can visit www.cypruspolicenews.com , under " ADVICE TO THE PUBLIC / Internet Fraud " or on the website www.cyberalert.cy .
The investigation of this case was undertaken by the Financial Crime Investigation Office of the Limassol Police Department.
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