Man falls victim to phone scammer, loses thousands

A 77-year-old man in Limassol fell victim to a fraud, known as vishing, when an unknown person called him over the phone pretending to be an employee of a bank managing to extract almost seven thousand euros from him.

Vishing, or ‘voice phishing’, involves defrauding people over the phone enticing them to divulge sensitive information.

The unknown individual spoke in English and told the victim that some of his transactions appeared to have been made online and appeared suspicious, convincing him to give him access to his personal computer via the Anydesk application.

The attacker then asked the 77-year-old to provide him with his i-banking credentials, something that the unsuspecting pensioner did.

As a result, the attacker managed to extract €6,850 by transferring it from the victims account to a Thai banks account.

The victim had filed a complaint with the police on August 3.

Police are investigating further.