Record $35 million lost to scams this year

Wednesday, 14 December 2022

Cybercrime is the second least-reported crime, after sexual assault, according to the Crime and Victims Survey.

At least $35 million was lost to scams and fraud in New Zealand this year, according to Netsafe.

The online safety organisation said there had been a 90% increase in reports of scams, fraud and online harm this year compared to 2021.

It received 15,384 complaints related to fraud or scams, a 20% increase compared to the previous year. This is in addition to the 28,253 reports relating to disclosure of sensitive personal information, harmful hate speech, privacy breaches and child sexual abuse material.

Netsafe said this year’s complaint numbers were the highest it had seen in its 24-year history.

* Online fraud spikes during Covid-19 lockdown, buyers warned of social media scams

* NetSafe reports 'drastic' jump in online fraud losses

Sean Lyons of Netsafe says Scammers are out to make big money at all times of the year, but increasingly looking to catch people out during periods of expected increased spending, including around Black Friday and in the lead up to Christmas

Brent Carey, chief executive of Netsafe, said ram raids had been one of the country’s biggest problems this year, but digital ram raids had tallied over tens of millions in damage and were not getting the same attention or funding to combat.

Netsafe’s annual report shows investment scams were the most common scam this year, followed by relationship and trust fraud.

In most cases, a scam artist posed as someone from a bank, utility service or government and conned the victim out of thousands of dollars.

Scams were on the rise as most consumers did not know what warnings signs to look out for, the non-profit said.

Sean Lyons, chief online safety officer at Netsafe, said the rise in scams could be put down in part to the general increase in technology use and shopping online over the past few years.

Hitting the shops for Christmas presents may offer better protection than buying online.

“With all types of harm online, the more we participate online then the more likely we are to potentially fall victim.

“The amount of scams that are out there and the frequency we come across them is generally increasing.”

Lyons said scams and fraud losses continued to grow and impact more Kiwis as scammers worked to continually develop and change their tactics and schemes.

He said there were warning signs that consumers could look out for as red flags,including unreasonable time pressures placed on a consumer and the desire to move communications between social media platforms or apps.

“Scammers will generally put people under unreasonable time pressure. There is nearly always a pressure to act quickly and to take advantage of this investment or to get the better deal you must act now. All of those act now tactics are used to take away our ability to check,” Lyons said.

“Scammers will often try to move us in and out of platforms we are comfortable with to try and remove the protections that sites have, and to put us in places that are less familiar.”

Other warning signs were convoluted stories around how money transacted, and a drive to get consumers to make payments through wire transfers or store bought gift cards, instead of more regular means of bank or credit card transactions, Lyons said.

Scammers were out to make big money at all times of the year, but increasingly looking to catch people out during periods of expected increased spending, including around Black Friday and in the lead up to Christmas, he said.

“There are an increasing number of online shopping and retail-based scams, it certainly is the time to watch out for unusual offers. Sometimes organisations will have their own website hacked and data attacked, so it is very important that people think very carefully when presented with offers.”