Police issued a warning over text message scams on Saturday after a 50-year-old man lost almost €25,000 from his bank account.

The Nicosia resident reported to the police on Friday that he had received an SMS telling him that his account had been blocked and asking him to confirm his ID through an online link.

After following the link, the complainant then entered his passwords and the sum of €24,890 from his account ended up in a foreign bank.

Citing this case of electronic fraud, police urged citizens to be particularly careful and not to respond to such messages. Instead, police said the public should contact the official number of the organisation or institution referred to the message.