Scammers tricked a Limassol company out of €105,000 with a fake invoice

Cyprus Police are investigating a new case of online fraud: a Limassol-based company transferred €105,000 to the perpetrators’ account after mistaking a fake email for a message from its supplier.

According to the findings, in July the company agreed with a foreign supplier to purchase a consignment of goods. On 17 August, it received an email purporting to be from a representative of that supplier. The email included an invoice for €105,000 for the ordered products.

On 25 August, the company transferred the amount to a bank account whose details were provided in the email. It was only on 14 September, after checking with the genuine supplier, that the company discovered the email was fake and that the recipient account did not belong to its partner.

The investigation is being conducted by the Economic Crime Investigation Bureau of the Limassol Police Crime Prevention Department.

Cyprus Police advise companies to verify any request for payment or change of bank details by calling the partner on a number known from previous correspondence, rather than using contact details provided in the email itself. The authorities recommend introducing an internal payment verification procedure and explaining to employees how this scheme works; detailed guidance has been published on the police website.