Police warns of WhatsApp scams impersonating officers

Cyprus police on Saturday released a statement urging the public to be cautious about a new type of telephone scam through WhatsApp, in which malicious parties impersonate police officers.

Specifically, scammers are using WhatsApp to make video calls to unsuspecting citizens, falsely pretending to be communicating on behalf of the Cypriot police.

Police said that the scammers speak in English and ask people to provide various personal and banking details, such as their ID and credit card numbers, among other things.

“These aforementioned phone calls are fraudulent and do not originate from the Cyprus Police,” the statement stressed.

The announcement further said that “the public is urged to be particularly cautious and not respond to calls or instructions received from these scammers”.

They also called on the public to avoid clicking on any links sent to them, and not disclose any codes received on their mobile phones to others.

The second point refers to SMS two-factor authentication, which is used to validate the identity of a user by texting a security code to their mobile device.

Finally, the police stressed that in the event that someone disclosed any of their bank details during such a call, to call their bank immediately in order to prevent the illicit use of sensitive information to potentially defraud them of any money.