New Zealand behind in implementing a government led initiative for scam reduction compared to Australia

Consumer NZ is currently advocating for an anti-scam centre run by the government to help prevent scams and provide victims with more support.

Jessica Walker, acting head of research and advocacy at Consumer NZ says, “an anti-scam centre would be all the players in the scam eco system sharing real time intelligence so that everyone is aware of trends and themes to shut them down quickly.”

Consumer NZ has been involved in conversations with the current Minister of Commerce and Consumer affairs, Scott Simpson and others in the ‘scam eco-system’.

In 2023, it was calculated that online scams cost Kiwis $200 million over the year.

Kiwis have very little protection if they fall victim to a scam.

New Zealand is several steps behind for victim support for scams, with many other countries already running anti-scam centres.

“In Australia, their anti-scam centre has been up and running for around a year and has already seen a huge reduction in scams, around 25 per cent.”

“Our research has found that it doesn’t matter how old you are, what ethnicity you are, how educated you are, you are still highly likely to be targeted and lose money to a scammer,” says Walker.

Wellington University Student, Bianca Diaz, was a victim of one of these online scams.

She says how she was trying to sell something on Facebook’s marketplace and had a potential buyer who offered to pay for their own shipping.

“That should’ve been the first red flag, but I had never sold anything on marketplace before,” says Diaz.

“It happened so quickly, after I realised, I had been scammed I immediately called my bank who were quick to close my bank accounts and lodge an investigation.”

LISTEN: Interview with Bianca Diaz about being scammed

It took Diaz nearly five months for her bank to reimburse her, due to her case getting lost over the Christmas break.

The bank also believed Diaz to be lying about the scam, which added to her long wait time.

“They said no at first, so then I made a formal complaint with the Ombudsman and shortly after my case was reopened, and they reevaluated their decision to reimburse me,” says Diaz.

According to a report by Netsafe and the Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA), it was revealed that online shopping scams have become a leading source of financial loss and have overtaken identify theft.

There has been little progress on initiating a government led response; however, Walker says that conversations are a good start.

“We really hope that our government doesn’t shy away from the fact that, yes, there will be a massive increase in resources, but when you look at what we’re losing to scammers right now, we don’t think you can afford to take a light touch approach to this.”

Diaz says, “the government should definitely lead an initiative especially as a student losing so much money, there needs to be more government support.”