ASB technology and operations executive general manager David Bullock explains how a common phishing scam works.
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Australian national Motasar Angasyo was sentenced for his role as a “money mule” in a $150,000 scam.
The 71-year-old victim lost her money within a week of the defendant’s arrival in New Zealand.
Judge Nicola Mathers granted a non-custodial sentence, emphasising rehabilitation over punishment.
Within days of arriving in New Zealand last year, an Australian national played a crucial role in a sophisticated scam that bilked an Auckland pensioner out of $150,000.
Authorities said Motasar Mergani Angasyo appeared poised to do it again with a victim from Southland when the Gore resident became suspicious about a proposed $40,000 transaction. He and his bank alerted police, resulting in Angasyo’s arrest in June.
Even though $105,000 is still missing, the 31-year-old told a judge last week as he returned to the Auckland District Court for sentencing that he is broke and has no way of repaying it.
As a “money mule”, Angasyo had been mostly kept in the dark about the scheme, defence lawyer Peter Marshall said, explaining that his client received a small cut of the victim’s savings for allowing his bank account to be used but was never considered by police to be the mastermind.
He sought a non-custodial sentence and no restitution to the bank, which has already reimbursed the victim.
Judge Nicola Mathers granted the requests, both of which were opposed by the Crown.
“In my view, rehabilitation is as important as the punitive aspect of a sentence,” the judge said, adding later: “You quite clearly have issues which need to be dealt with.”
‘Absolutely devastating’
Court documents state Angasyo arrived in New Zealand on May 17 last year.
Three days later, the 71-year-old victim entered her details into an imposter website designed to look like Kiwibank. Another person in on the scam called her pretending to be a bank employee and offered an investment opportunity.
She didn’t know it yet, but police said the woman fell victim to what is called the “term-deposit scam”, a type of fraud that has disconcertingly flourished in New Zealand over the past two years.
Australian money mule scammer Motasar Angasyo was arrested in NZ for helping to swindle a 71-year-old out of $150,000. Photo / Alex Burton
“Offshore criminals use online advertisements and social media to promote fake bond and term-deposit investment offers in well-known New Zealand companies,” court documents explain.
“The scammers will sound professional, knowledgeable and be personable, and may not rush consumers to make a decision. Often, the investment return being advertised by scammers will sound reasonable (as opposed to ‘too-good-to-be-true’ scams).”
The scammers have also eliminated what otherwise might be a major red flag – recruiting locals to serve as “money mules” so the ill-gotten funds don’t need to be deposited directly into an overseas bank account. That is where Angasyo came in.
“At this point, the money is usually transferred offshore by the holder of that bank account,” Auckland City CIB’s Detective Senior Sergeant Craig Bolton explained last year after Angasyo’s arrest.
“It is absolutely devastating for those who are losing money in such huge quantities like this.”
After speaking with the overseas scammer, Angasyo’s victim went to an ASB bank branch in Henderson and transferred $150,000 to an ANZ account that she thought had been opened in her name. In actuality, it belonged to the defendant.
From May 24 to 27, still during his first week in New Zealand, Angasyo transferred $105,000 of the woman’s money to an “unknown bank account” in Britain.
Vital link in the criminal chain
The Crown sought a prison term during last week’s hearing, noting that Angasyo’s involvement was far from trivial, even if he wasn’t the mastermind.
“He nonetheless played a very big role in this,” prosecutor Isabella Joe argued. “[He was] more than just a passive mule – he was a link in the chain.
“Without his involvement, that money could not be sent overseas.”
The Crown also sought restitution for the $105,000 that is still missing but acknowledged that even with such an order in place, it was unlikely the defendant could ever pay it.
Angasyo’s lawyer said the defendant has spent the past 10 months unemployed and bailed to a Salvation Army-operated rehab centre in Epsom, surviving with some limited financial help from his family in Australia.
“It would be fruitless to make that order,” the judge said of restitution. “I’ll leave that to the civil courts to pursue.”
Judge Mathers ordered the defendant to serve six months’ community detention, during which time he will have an overnight curfew at the same rehab facility, and 14 months of intensive supervision.
The sentence reflected discounts he had received for his guilty plea to one count of receiving, remorse, the steps he’s already taken towards rehabilitation, the time he’s spent awaiting trial on bail with a confiscated passport and the 350 hours of volunteer work he has done so far through the Salvation Army.
Volunteerism was his way of showing remorse by giving something back to the community, Marshall said.
The judge ordered him to complete 150 more hours of community work as a term of his sentence.
Angasyo’s inability to leave New Zealand has been especially hard on him because he has no support network here, his lawyer said. His family moved to Australia as refugees from Sudan. His mother recently moved back to Sudan, the judge was told, and his father remains in Australia, along with the defendant’s former partner and their children.
While determining his sentence, the judge noted that he had no prior convictions in New Zealand – though this was not surprising given the short time between his arrival and his arrest.
He does have prior convictions in Australia for burglary, breach of court orders and “some offending of a violent nature”, but the judge deemed them not worthy of an uplift because they dated back to 2015.
No victim impact statement was submitted to the court but Judge Mathers said she had no doubt it would have been tough on the 71-year-old even after she was reimbursed by the bank.
“That she had been duped, for someone of her age, must have been absolutely devastating,” she said.
“I accept that you did not receive any benefit yourself, but you were an integral part of the offending.”
The judge said she wanted to keep a close eye on Angasyo and his continuing efforts at recovery. She ordered him to return to court in October for a judicial monitoring hearing.
What to look for
Police have offered the following tips to avoid falling victim to term deposit scams:
Never enter contact details into any online website that offers “term deposit” rates
If you think you may have entered your contact details on a website offering fake term deposits, do not engage in conversations over the phone with a person purporting to be from a bank – disconnect the call and phone back to a number displayed on the bank’s website
You can always call your bank to seek reassurance and confirmation you are talking to a trusted and legitimate employee
Seek advice from a trusted friend or family member, or someone who has knowledge of investments, before sending any money anywhere
Check the URL of the website that you are directed to and confirm it is the valid website for the bank that you believe you are dealing with
The Financial Markets Authority publishes the names of suspicious companies on its website.
Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.
