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A woman sits in front of her computer at home, watching the mouse move around the screen draining money from her bank accounts.
She is powerless to intervene, having given a stranger claiming to be a Microsoft technician on the phone access to her personal computer.
This frightening image was presented, among many other scam scenarios, to a recent Hibiscus Coast GreyPower meeting in Orewa by a man who deals with this type of fraud every day – Detective Snr Sgt Iain Chapman of Auckland Police’s financial crime unit.
He says cyber-crime is a growing problem, including a big spike in scams that target senior citizens because it produces results.
“The people who get sucked into scams are normal, intelligent people who later say they can’t believe they fell for it,” he says.
There have always been fraudsters, but technology has taken it to a new level, enabling criminals to generate fake phone numbers at random and locate addresses for fraudulent mailouts via online maps.
In 2018, $33 million in losses from scams were reported by Kiwis to government-backed online safety agency Netsafe. That figure is up $10 million from 2017.
Scammers are professional criminals and their work broadly falls into a few main categories. The first is an ‘advance fee’ fraud – characterised by a ‘too good to be true’ offer that comes via email or post.
They include emails or letters claiming you are entitled to some kind of windfall, such as an inheritance from a lost uncle. This is followed by attempts to establish a personal connection and then the requests for cash begin.
Scams based in Nigeria are the best known of these, but they can originate anywhere. Sgt Chapman says many come from China and Malaysia and even, occasionally, New Zealand.
Another category of scam is the so-called confidence or romance scams where a relationship is built up and the scammer convinces the person that they can handle your money, or that you can help them with a financial transaction.
This type of scam can lead to money laundering or people being used as ‘mules’ to transport drugs.
“If you are being asked to send money, or handle money on behalf of someone you met online and never in person – you are being scammed.”
Lottery scams are still prevalent – this may be a phoney ‘scratch and win’ that comes by mail, or an email that suggests you have won money.
The recipient contacts the scammer and then requests for ‘tax’ or other payments follow.
Sgt Chapman says the scammers’ goal is to turn electronic money into cash as quickly as possible. Once it’s in cash, it’s gone.
And he says it’s safe to assume that a portion of the large volume of cash obtained through scams goes towards financing terrorism.
Sgt Chapman says that even though the numbers involved are already scary, we are just at the beginning.
“It’s a sad fact that it’s going to get worse as technology, and the ability to catch the criminals at the cutting edge of it, becomes more difficult.”
The biggest weapon in the fight against this type of fraud, he says, is an educated, informed public.
And while scamming is a serious concern, there is no need to be afraid or become paranoid about it.
Sgt Chapman says no one is holding a gun to your head.
“All you have to do is be aware and learn not to trust people or organisations that you can’t independently verify with your money.
What you can do
• Change passwords regularly – including computer, email, banking and cellphone. Use secure passwords – the finger pattern on smartphones is one of the hardest to break. Virus protection is like a burglar alarm for your computer.
• Rule of thumb: no corporation will ever ring and ask for personal details. If you receive a call from an ‘official’, and they ask for information – stop. Hang up and call the organisation back on a number from the phone book.
• If you are cold contacted with offers of cash or incentives – you are being scammed.
• It’s easy to hack Facebook accounts, so if you receive a message from someone that you think is a Facebook friend involving money (such as, I’m in Africa and lost my passport, or I’ve won Lotto and you’re on the ticket, too), double check by calling that person on the numbers you know. This is an advance-fee fraud.
• Use Google to check whether something is legitimate, Google search for the name of the person or organisation that claims to be the source, followed by the word ‘scam’. You will soon see if there are articles naming them as scammers. Double-check the identity of anyone that you are sending money to.
• If you think you have been scammed, contact your bank and police immediately.
• More information is available at netsafe.org.nz and you can report scams there, too.
