NICOSIA, Sept. 6 -- Cyprus' Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) has launched a social media campaign to prevent investment scams following a spade of complaints by people who had been defrauded by scammers.

A CySEC press release Friday said the campaign is aimed at protecting investors against the rising trend of online scams and follows the discovery of fraudulent websites that are falsely claiming to be associated with CySEC.

In a separate move, the Cyprus Police issued a warning to the public, calling on people to avoid any investments offering unusually high returns.

The Electronic Crime Division of the police said it has identified several videos on social media platforms featuring public figures urging viewers to invest in opportunities that are actually non-existent.

Police said online scams are becoming a serious issue in Cyprus, as in the past 25 days they received eight significant fraud complaints involving losses of over half a million euros.

In one such case, a 68-year-old man lost 183,000 euros (202,908 U.S. dollars), the savings of a life, by responding to a fake stock investment website.

CySec urged the public to ensure that any person or entity that they are in contact with, are licensed to provide investment services in Cyprus.

  - Xinhua