CY company used as cover for Nigerian internet scam

CYPRUS Airways (CY) said yesterday it had informed the electronic fraud office of a scam involving its subsidiary company Zenon NDC.

Known as ‘phishing’, such scams are an attempt to fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as usernames, passwords and credit card and bank details, by pretending to be a bank or company.

An email has been circulating in Cyprus, allegedly from Zenon, requesting personal information under the guise of seeking people to work from home for £700 a month plus commission.

Zenon NDC is the joint venture partner in Cyprus of the travel system Sabre, which connects travel buyers and sellers through the world’s largest global distribution system, providing over 50,000 travel agency locations with instant access to content from airlines, hotels, car rental companies and cruise lines and more.

Zenon’s business now represents over 65 per cent of the Cypriot market with more than 290 travel agencies connected on the Zenon network.

According the email, the company is working to expand its services “and make work faster for clients and customers”. A new project was set up and the company was in need of people to work from home “and make an impact in our business,” said the email.

“We will then like to employ you Part-Time to work for the company from home and get paid. Your job will be very complex. We do not require your full time or effort. We will be diverting local payments within Cyprus to your bank account.”

It then asks for bank account numbers and international transfer details and gives Cyprus Airways` Nicosia address at the bottom.

CY spokesman Kyriacos Kyriacou said yesterday the email was clearly a scam. He said head office had warned Zenon about it and had also reported it to the electronic fraud office of the police.

“It appears it has come from Nigeria and since the police can’t go there to investigate it, there is not much that can be done except to warn people,” Kyriacou said.

He said there had been no reports of anyone in Cyprus having fallen for the scam.
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The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.