Greek Cypriot Police urge caution due to new email fraud

Greek Cypriot Police has urged caution regarding a new email fraud blackmailing users to pay to avoid data on their devices leaking on pornographic websites.

In an announcement at the weekend, the Greek Cypriot police said that scammers send fraudulent messages to users, falsely claiming that they gained access to their accounts, blackmailing them to pay an amount in cryptocurrency, otherwise they will post their data on pornographic websites.

In the email, the scammers ask users to transfer $1900 in bitcoin into an electronic wallet.

These messages are deceitful and the recipients must in no case proceed with replying or negotiating with the senders and even more so with sending the money, police noted.

Such messages must be immediately deleted, the announcement continued, advising people to change their email passwords frequently and to use a two-step verification for their email.

Furthermore, police urge people to use programmes to shield their devices from malware and not to open links included in messages by unidentified persons.

Users are also urged to contact the cybercrime unit of the police to file complaints and visit the cyberalert.cy and www.police.gov.cy for more information.