Editorial: Should the NZ government be doing more to counter a ‘scamdemic’ costing millions every year?

Fraud and scams are becoming increasingly concerning in New Zealand.

EDITORIAL

New Zealand appears to be suffering a ‘scamdemic’, with reports and warnings of a new racket seemingly landing every day.

Kiwis are being fleeced out of millions of dollars every year - $200m last year alone - through new and inventive tricks and cons, especially through increasingly sophisticated cyber crimes.

Stark figures from the Global Anti-Scam Alliance and Netsafe, however, show the actual loss could be more than $2 billion, as most victims don’t report scams to police.

The same report showed two-thirds of Kiwis encounter a scam once a month, with 50 per cent experiencing more scams over the past year.

On Friday, the Herald reported how a “devastated” private school principal is accusing Westpac of negligence and considering legal action after he and his wife lost $323,000 in an elaborate scam.

It is the latest in a concerning trend of scams targeting these shores, often from tricksters overseas.

Last month, police even warned the public to remain vigilant against phone calls and emails going around where scammers were posing as cops.

Financial crime investigations are complex, involving police and banks across jurisdictions.

And there is an element of personal responsibility, to make sure you’re doing your own checks that everything is above board and people are who they say they are before handing over hard-earned cash.

But is it time that our government introduces tighter measures to ensure the safety of Kiwis?

Britain has made moves in recent times to tighten up its rules and regulations to protect itself from scammers.

In 2020, the United Kingdom’s six largest banking groups introduced measures which saw checks on whether the name entered on a bank transfer matches the name of the recipient bank account.

It was hoped that the cross-referencing move would help combat transfer scams and make it less likely customers’ money would end up in the wrong hands.

And last year, major British banks vowed to share more data with each other, especially around suspected serious financial crime.

Similar measures in NZ would be welcome, especially with much of the recent fraud cases being committed offshore, making it hard for NZ authorities to pursue arrests and hold the offenders to account.

In the modern age where many transactions are conducted online, we need to ensure everything is done to protect ourselves from faceless fraudsters.

It is especially important in these post-Covid, straitened times where the cost of living crisis is really starting to bite and every penny is a prisoner.