Fraudster steal NZ disaster victims' identities

Pike River families spokesman Bernie Monk was "shocked" to hear the names of a number of victims of recent NZ disasters had been used in online fraud. Photo / Iain McGregor

Pike River families spokesman Bernie Monk was "shocked" to hear the names of a number of victims of recent New Zealand disasters had been used in online fraud.

Monk said authorities had alerted him to the fact someone had stolen the identities of a number of victims, including those from the Pike River Mine explosion on November 19, 2010.

"It took me by surprise, but I was appreciative the police were on to it," he said.

Detective Senior Sergeant Iain Chapman of the Auckland City District Financial Crime Unit said the conman got the personal details of 29 identities in February 2012 from the A Memory Tree website.

The website is the country's largest death information website, which allows people to set up remembrance pages for those who have died.

Chapman said some of the stolen identities belonged to people who died in the Christchurch earthquake on February 22, 2011, the Pike River Mine explosion and the Carterton balloon disaster on January 7, 2012.

He said the man used the names to open online accounts with a Telco provider and used the accounts to order high-end smartphones that were charged against the false accounts.

Chapman said the fraud was identified quickly and led to the accounts being shut down the following months, March and April.

The telco company made a complaint to police in August 2012, but by then the offender had left the country.

"The police investigation file is still active. There is no information to suggest the person in question has returned to New Zealand since his departure in May 2012.

He said over the past several months the families of victims of those tragedies whose identities had been taken were informed of the man's activities in 2012.

Although Monk was shocked to hear the news of the fraud and frustrated someone could simply steal the identities, he was happy at police response.

"It was some months ago I was made aware of it by the authorities, but I was happy with their response."

He urged people to be more careful about exposing their private information online.