The police cybercrime unit on Tuesday warned of a new SMS scam after a Nicosia resident reported that €23,000 was stolen from his bank account.

The complainant told police that on Monday he received an SMS that looked like it had been sent from his bank, telling him that his account had been locked temporarily and asking him to confirm his identity by following a link.

Not realizing this was a scam, he followed the instructions, losing all of the money he had in his account.

The case is currently being investigated by the Nicosia financial crime unit.

At the same time, the cybercrime unit called on the public to be more careful as it has received several reports from people who received similar misleading texts.

According to the reports, these messages contain the phrase “Your account has been temporarily locked, please verify your identity at the following link: https://…….”.

The public were also urged not to click on these links.