The Cyprus tax department has issued an urgent warning to the public about a new wave of fraudulent emails designed to trick recipients into revealing personal information.

According to the department, the scam messages use the official tax department logo and claim that the recipient is entitled to a tax refund. The emails instruct unsuspecting people to scan a QR code in order to receive the supposed payment.

Officials stressed that these messages are an attempt to deceive users into opening suspicious files or following malicious links, potentially compromising their personal and financial data.

The department is urging anyone who receives such an email to ignore it and take no action.

It remindes taxpayers that all legitimate VAT and income tax refunds are processed exclusively via secure bank transfers to the IBAN account declared by the taxpayer.

Furthermore, the tax department underlined that any official email communication will only ever come from addresses ending in @tax.mof.gov.cy.