The police on Sunday warned people to not fall victim to online scams after a tyre shop owner lost more than €13,000 when he bought tyres on the internet which turned out to not exist.

The tyre shop owner told police he had received an email in mid-July from a sender who claimed to be a tyre sales company based abroad, and who offered the tyre shop owner tyres to buy.

He was convinced, and sent €13,399 to an overseas bank account on July 22, fully believing he was about to have tyres sent to him.

However, he then contacted the shipping company which he was led to believe would undertake the import of the tyres to Cyprus and then realised he had fallen victim to a scam, as the company in question does not operate between the tyres’ purported origin and Cyprus.

He then reported the case to the police, who are now conducting an investigation into the matter.