'You've won $190,000': Why we're still falling for scams

Thursday, 30 November 2017

The Malaysian travel brochure scratchie scam: 'You've won $US190,000, now just send us some money to cover fees and taxes.'

There's always another scam, which suggests enough people fall for these con tricks to make the scammers' efforts pay off.

That's despite the range of defences that have been put in place to keep people wise to what's going on. The latest warning came from the Commerce Commission on Tuesday. It was for something described as a 'travel scratchie scam'.

The Netflix email scam that targeted millions of users worldwide.

In this particular Malaysia-based con trick, people find scratchies delivered to their letter box. The scratchies are enclosed in glossy, professionally-printed travel brochures.

One of the scratchies almost always reveals a large amount of money has been won, such as US$190,000. The only catch is the 'lucky winner' needs to send a large payment to cover taxes or fees before they can get the prize.

A Wellington man spent $35,000 for a bride after seeing this notice in the Dominion Post in June 2016. The woman was from Malaysia and was already married to an Australian.

In this scam, people received fraudulent emails advertising free 'high value Briscoes gift vouchers'. People were told to: 'Click on the button below to continue'.

* Why I posed as a Russian bride (it's not what you think)**

*** Canadian-based callers hitting New Zealand mobile users with scam offers

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* Scammers pose as police, demand cash to release family members

* Kiwis warned to steer clear of Malaysian travel scratchie scam

* Wellington woman caught up in online romance scam, loses fortune**

You may think it's hard to believe anyone would fall for that old trick. But whatever else they may be, the scammers aren't fools.

The Malaysian travel scratchie scam was just the latest iteration of a commonly seen scam, new versions of which were appearing often, the Commerce Commission said.

Also trying to save us from being parted from our hard-earned cash, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment's (MBIE) Consumer Protection arm has a Scamwatch section.

RADIO SCAM

It warned last week of a scammer using a Facebook account to claim to be working for Radio Spectrum Management - part of MBIE - asking for personal information from licence holders and radio users.

'Radio Spectrum Management would never contact radio users or licence holders on social media to ask for personal information, financial information or money,' Consumer Protection said.

Another defence against the dark arts of the confidence tricksters is online safety organisation Netsafe, which has a section on scams. Among its anti-scam activities, it has launched an initiative called Re:scam, described as 'an artificially intelligent email bot made to reply to scam emails'.

'Re:scam wastes scammers time with a never-ending series of questions and anecdotes so that scammers have less time to pursue real people,' Netsafe said.

In the two weeks after it was launched, Re:scam received over 100,000 emails. It was 'having many simultaneous conversations with scammers at any one time,' Netsafe marketing and communications adviser Kimberly Burgess said.

Trends included scams aimed at romance, ones where people were told they were the sole beneficiary of a large amount of money and bitcoin swindles.

SCRATCH CARD SWINDLE SURGE

Netsafe was made aware of scams running in New Zealand through its contact centre, and in the past couple of weeks had seen a new surge in scratch and win card scams.

'Recently, we've also seen reports of people calling targets and obtaining their partner's phone number,' Burgess said.

'They then call back a few days later, making the caller ID appear to be coming from the partner, and pretend to be from the Police or Immigration NZ. They say that the partner has been arrested or detained, and a sum of money needs to be paid before they'll be released.'

Netsafe often received reports of cold call scams, particularly PC tech support scams. These involve scammers warning of such issues as a virus infecting the computer of the person receiving the call. Claiming to be from a well known company, the scammer often tries to get remote access to the target's computer.

If they get remote access - the ability to operate the target's computer from wherever in the world they maybe - they may be able to get personal details for identify fraud or theft, or install rogue software to get login information for such things as online banking.

VIRUS THREAT

The scammers might also try to sell software or a support contract.

Consumer Protection manager Mark Hollingsworth said phishing scams were the most common type in New Zealand.

'Generally, you receive an email or a cold call from someone pretending to be from a well-known organisation, bank or government agency to trick the person into making a payment or giving over financial or personal information,' he said.

In some cases, more sophisticated methods and technologies were being used to make a scam seem more real - such as where a person's contact details were compromised and used to contact family, claiming money was needed to release a family member from prison.

While the details might change, the indications something was a scam generally remained the same, Hollingsworth said.

'Things like, does the offer seem too good to be true, is the contact unexpected, do the contact details of the caller or emailer seem strange, or are there spelling errors in the email,' he said.

'Banks, government agencies, the police, and trusted brands will never contact you asking for financial information or to make a payment at random.'

FRAUD PLAYBOOK

Consumer psychologist Kit Yarrow provided some intriguing insights into our vulnerability in an article, titled 'The Science of Why We Fall for Scams That Are So Obviously Scams', published in Money.

'Anyone with a heart, with a family, or with common desires or insecurities can be victimised by the sophisticated mind games used by today's fraudsters,' she wrote.

Particularly in stressful situations, people paid attention to information that supported their beliefs and ignored what didn't. Those who were lonely or eager to make a quick buck were highly likely to fall for online dating scams and money-winning scams.

'When people feel like something they desire deeply is impossible to possess through their own efforts, they are especially susceptible to believe that destiny or some magic stroke of luck will come to the rescue,' Yarrow said.

When scammers called warning about a computer problem, people could panic because of the potential consequences of something going wrong. With the natural urge to avoid loss, blame and shame, people could feel compelled to make the supposed problem go away as quickly as possible.

The standard fraud playbook was to create a sense of urgency, raising emotions and decreasing rationality. In one scam - where a man was told he needed to pay $2000 to bail his step-grandson out of jail - the scammer introduced a time limit but sounded like he didn't care whether the money was paid or not.

The best advice to avoid getting scammed was to talk to someone you trusted about what was going on, Yarrow said.