Over €640,000 Stolen from Limassol Company in Online Scam

Police in Limassol are investigating a large-scale case of online fraud after cybercriminals managed to steal more than €642,000 from a Cyprus-based company using a fake email.

The incident was reported to the Limassol Financial Crime Investigation Unit (TAE) by a representative of the company. According to the report, in April 2025, the company received an email that appeared to be from a regular business partner. The message claimed that the partner’s bank account details had changed and instructed the company to transfer payment for an attached invoice to a new account based in another European country.

Taking the email at face value, the company transferred €642,658 to the new account. It was only later, after contacting their partner, that they realized the email was fraudulent and the bank account did not belong to the partner company.

The case is now being handled by the Limassol Economic Crime Investigation Unit. Police are urging the public and businesses to exercise caution when handling invoice payments—especially if bank account details have changed. They strongly recommend verifying such changes by directly calling the partner company, using known and previously used contact information, rather than relying on details provided in the suspicious message.

Authorities are also calling on company directors and business owners to raise awareness among their staff about this type of fraud and to implement internal verification procedures for all payment-related communications.