South Cyprus company scammed out of €11,000 in deposit fraud

A company in Limassol has reported been scammed of €11,362.50, through an email regarding a deposit for machinery ordered from abroad.

According to the complaint filed on Monday by the company’s director, an aluminium cutting machine was ordered from a Romanian company last July for the sum of €15,725.

On the same day, an email was received from the partnering company requesting a deposit of €7,862.50 to be transferred to a foreign bank account. The company proceeded with the payment as requested.

A follow-up email was received on August 1, providing further instructions, which led to an additional payment of €3,500.

The fraud was discovered when the owner of the Romanian company contacted the Cypriot firm, informing them that the machine was ready and payment was due. When the Cypriot company mentioned that part of the payment had already been made as a deposit, the Romanian owner stated that his company had never received any funds and was unaware of the account to which the payments were made.

The case is under investigation by the economic crime investigation unit of Limassol’s CID.