Due to increased incidents of Cybercrime reported to the Office for Combating Cyber Crime and the Police in general related to the phenomenon of e-mail fraud (Man in the Middle scam), the Police call on the public to be especially careful in their transactions and their money.

Specifically, there is the form of fraud called "Man in the Middle", ie third parties manage to access e-mail mainly from companies and intervene in the communication between two traders. The e-mail is then redirected and the bank accounts and money of a commercial transaction are changed, pretending to be the real dealer. As a result of the fraud, money is sent to other accounts of the beneficiary.

Police recommend that the public should be very careful in the event of such incidents, in order to avoid possible financial fraud.

In particular, it is recommended that the following security measures be taken:

• When asked to pay a different bank account than the one they usually use, they must verify the request by telephone or other contact with the supplier.
• Change the passwords in their e-mail regularly and use two step verification techniques to log in to the e-mail.
• Use malware protection programs, both on your computer and on mobile devices, to update regularly.
• Do not open links to emails or text messages from strangers, as these links may refer to malicious websites or cause malware to be installed.
• Make regular checks on the settings of their e-mail redirection filters. In case it is found that there is such an active filter redirection to another unknown e-mail, then to delete such an arrangement and to inform the Police.
• To regularly check the access history of their e-mail and when they notice an unknown connection to take corrective action.

The Office for Combating Cybercrime is available to the public or companies to report a complaint and the public is invited to visit the website of the service www.cyberalert.cy for information and for reference.