Serie A giants Lazio tricked by hackers, pay £1.75 million to the wrong account

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Rome, March 29: Italian Serie A giants Lazio have reportedly lost £1.75million after falling for an email scam. They lost out after being tricked into paying the final instalment of Dutch defender Stefan de Vrij's move from Feyenoord into the wrong bank account.

Italian newspaper Il Tempo reported that the Serie A giants were hoodwinked by hackers with knowledge of the deal.

Lazio received an email that appeared to be from Feyenoord asking for the £1.75m along with bank account details and the Italians fell into the trap ending up transferring the money to that account.

But Eredivisie champions Feyenoord never received the cash for Manchester City and Liverpool target De Vrij and claim to have no knowledge of the email.

Il Tempo claim that the prosecutor looking into the case has tracked down the money to a Dutch bank account - but it isn't Feyenoord's

De Vrij joined Lazio for £6.8million in 2014 after a successful World Cup campaign with Holland.

He has since risen to become one of the finest centre-backs in Europe after making 104 appearances and scoring seven goals.

Out of contract Dr Vrij is set to snub offers from some of Europe's biggest clubs to join Inter Milan as per reports in Italy as reliable media outlet Gazzetta dello Sport report he has told Inter he is willing to join them.

He has already confirmed he will leave the Biancocelesti at the end of the season.

Manchester City and Barcelona are among the European powerhouses interested in his signing. Liverpool also are long-term admirers of the Dutchman and were looking to pair him up with his compatriot Virgil van Dijk at the heart of the defence.

The report claims he has been in talks with Inter for over a year — but negotiations had been sped up recently due to interest from Barcelona and Man City.

At Inter, he would likely become part of one of the best centre-back partnerships around, alongside Milan Skriniar.