Fraudsters get the Italian club to pay them £1.75m

Italian club Lazio were involved in a hacking scam on Wednesday. It is believed that hackers with the knowledge of the deal between Lazio and Feyenoord tricked the Italian club into paying them £1.75m. This was supposed to be for the final instalment of Stephan De Vrij’s deal. It is believed that the club was tricked by an email from the scammers who pretended to be the Dutch champions asking for the money and the club duly sent the money. It became an issue when Feyenoord claimed to have no knowledge of the email and received the money. The prosecutor looking into the case has since tracked the money to a Dutch bank account that does not belong to Feyenoord. De Vrij joined Lazio in 2014 after a successful World Cup with Netherlands in a £6.8m deal but is yet to extend his contract which runs down at the end of the season. He surely will be a name on everyone’s lips as some of the top clubs look for defensive reinforcements in the summer.