Email scam warning is a scam itself

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Rotorua residents are being told to ignore an email claiming to warn people about a scam.

The email has been sent to several Rotorua residents, as well as people nationwide. It warns about a scam where a person will call someone's mobile phone and will tell them that they are an engineer, then ask the person to press #90 or #09 or a similar number.

The email claims that once the person does this, the caller will then have access to the SIM card.

It claims that by doing this the caller will be able to access personal information and make calls at theexpense of the SIM card owner.

The email is signed off by someone who says they are a police officer and calls for people to circulate it to their friends and family.

However, a Rotorua computer expert has warned that by circulating the emails, people are unknowingly playing into the hoaxer's plans. He says people should instead look for clues that such emails are a hoax and delete them.

An identical email was circulated in March 2009 at which point a spokesman for Police National Headquarters said it was a hoax.

A police letterhead at the top of the email has a phone number to police at the Counties Manukau Courthouse.

When The Daily Post phoned the number a police officer, who did not want to be identified, said the email was a hoax and she didn't know how her phone number got attached to the email.

"We are just asking people to let others know that it is a hoax," she said.

Rotorua Neighbourhood Support co-ordinator Barrie Fenton said he had heard several reports of the email circulating in Rotorua.

He said it was one of the many which often cropped up in Rotorua but nothing could be done to prevent it.

Rotorua telecommunications and information technology consultant Nathan Willis, of Phocal Communications, was one of those who received the email.

He said he immediately forwarded it to his email contacts.

"I then looked at it again and did some research and realised it was a hoax."

Mr Willis said some of the phone numbers on the email were not New Zealand phone numbers.

"So I phoned the Auckland number and got a New Zealand police answerphone message which said that the email was a hoax."

He said despite the fact the email was a hoax, it would be possible for someone to gain remote access to a mobile phone.

"Technically, the old adage is that anything which is online has the potential to be hacked," he said.

As it was a hoax, the email could have been sent out of spite, Mr Willis said.

"It is not spreading a virus, which is good, but essentially it appears they were trying to jam the phone line for the officer at Counties Manukau."

Mr Willis said people should look for clues, like foreign phone numbers, to show an email was a hoax.

Mr Fenton said people who were concerned about such emails should contact Neighbourhood Support or the police.