Cypercrime officers, in cooperation with Europol, have recovered €4 million stolen from a Greek shipping company through an email fraud, and identified two people suspected of having mounted the scam, police said Monday.
A police statement said the attack, known as business email compromise, occurred in August 2025, involved a cash transfer to a Bulgarian bank and was immediately reported to authorities.
This allowed Greek police, following quick coordination with Europol and the banks involved, initially to prevent the criminals from being able to access the money and later to have it returned in full to the shipping firm.
The two foreign nationals linked with the Bulgarian bank account have now been identified and face charges of high-value computer fraud and illegal access to data.
The statement said the scam involved unknown fraudsters acquiring illegal access to emails exchanged between the company and a foreign bank it worked with. Then, using fake invoices and a misleading email address that was similar to the company’s, they arranged for the money transfer.
