Some excellent information on past and current scams is available on the Ministry of Consumer affairs website at http://www.scamwatch.govt.nz . If you have recently experienced a potential scam or hoax, you can fill out the Report a Scam Form on this site.
As soon as you realise that you have been the victim of a scam, you should act to protect yourself. If you act early enough, you may prevent or reduce the impact of the scam. Some information on what to do is available on the Ministry of Consumer affairs website's I've been scammed, what do I do? Section.
Scams could be anything, but are most commonly around obtaining your personal information, specifically your credit card or bank account details. Here are some brief details around some other scams that have been reported to us recently.
Computer Virus
Someone will contact your home phone number, possibly addressing you by your surname (it appears they are using the local directories to obtain contact details) and advise that they can detect that your home computer has been or is being infected by viruses or Trojans.
They will then ask you to perform some quick tasks on your computer in order to remove the viruses or Trojans. The steps they take you through will actually allow the caller to access your computer, and thus access all of your personal information.
If you believe you have been a victim to this scam, please refer to http://www.scamwatch.govt.nz
Dial '90#' or ‘09#'
Someone will contact your home phone number and advise you that there is a fault with your phone line, or that they wish to conduct tests on your phone line, and that they wish you to dial 90# so they are able to continue with their testing.
They will pretend to be from a major phone company.
There is no danger to Residential customers - the code will do nothing.
The 90# code can be used by those utilising PABX systems to allow the caller to make a long distance call and have it charged to them instead of the caller. Many PABX systems are programmed in a fashion that disallows use of this code, but not all are. Please call us on 888 for more information.