Police’s cyber crime unit are warning of an email scam in which senders claiming to work for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States are asking for money to stop recipients from being arrested for child porn.
In a written announcement, it said that it has received complaints from members the public that they have received emails pretending to have come from an official US authority.
The message says the sender has information the recipient is involved in criminal activity (child porn) and faces arrest but could be removed from the list if he/she sends $10,000 in Bitcoin. (see sample below)
Police said the messages are a totally fraudulent and malicious.
It is urging members of the public who do receive such an email to be particularly careful, not to reply or to send any money. Moreover, they should change their password, use anti-virus programmes and carry out all the updates on their computer.
Members of the public can contact the cyber crime unit to report such cases on the police website (www.police.gov.cy) Â in the field cybercrime.
