National wants police liaison officers placed in remote countries to target cyber scammers

National's police spokesman Mark Mitchell says New Zealand will be seen as a soft target if it fails to go after international scammers. Photo / Jed Bradley

The National Party is calling for new measures to crack down on international scammers, including partnerships with remote countries where criminals reside and the placement of Kiwi police liaison officers to investigate and prosecute offshore offenders.

But the Government has rubbished the suggestions as creating more bureaucracy and wasting police resources.

National’s police spokesman Mark Mitchell told the Herald Kiwi victims were losing their life savings to sophisticated scams and police did not have sufficient resources to tackle the growing problem.

“The reality is if there isn’t determination between governments in terms of getting on top of this then this is turning into a multi-billion dollar scam around the world. In my view, it’s time to turn our mind to it seriously.”

The Herald reported yesterday that police have all but shelved attempts to solve international scam cases due to complexities in identifying offenders in remote jurisdictions across Russia, Asia and Africa, and the use of “money mules” to mask the trail of stolen money.

Detective Inspector Chris Barry said police were instead targeting local people whose accounts were used to move the money abroad and it was up to banks to stop money being fraudulently obtained and try to recover it once funds were sent overseas.

“I think getting the money back is a lot more likely than identifying the offenders and having them prosecuted in their own countries,” Barry said.

“I struggle to a degree to see how these investigations would be successful given the location and complexities of identifying and locating the offenders.”

The admission has drawn flak, with claims New Zealand could be viewed as a soft target by professional crime networks if police fail to take action against scammers, and the need to collaborate with international agencies like Interpol and the FBI.

Mitchell said those collaborations should extend to new partnerships and agreements with governments where the scammers resided and operated from.

It was not good enough to ignore the problem because it was too hard when New Zealanders were losing hundreds of millions of dollars every year.

“We have to have briefings to find out exactly what police capability is at the moment and where we think the gap lies.

“It’s not sustainable, especially if New Zealand is seen more and more as an easy target.

“We need relationships and partnerships with the countries where the scams are being generated from. It may come to the point where we have to put liaison officers up there to be more effective on the ground to liaise with authorities.”

Mitchell said this would give New Zealand authorities more ability to identify, investigate and prosecute the offshore predators who were targeting our people.

“Otherwise the problem is just going to grow.”

It’s estimated that scammers are sucking hundreds of millions of dollars out of New Zealand each year, with cases rising in recent months.

Police Minister Ginny Andersen has rubbished National's suggestions as wasting police resources. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Police Minister Ginny Andersen said scams were difficult crimes to investigate, especially when they occurred in countries New Zealand did not have close relationships with.

“Mr Mitchell’s ridiculous suggestion of placing police officers in countries New Zealand has no jurisdiction in would be a waste of police resources, creating more bureaucracy and taking much-needed police resources off the ground here in New Zealand.”

Cyber fraud was a global issue for law enforcement, she said. Police worked closely with international partners where they could, and had established a national fraud group to enhance polices response and management of allegations of fraud and cyber fraud.

The Government had also invested an additional $30.6m in Cert NZ to tackle cyber crime, Andersen said.

The agency provides core services of response and triage, situational awareness and information sharing, advice and outreach, international collaboration and coordination of serious cyber incidents.

While Mitchell claimed the Government had only recruited 11 forensic accountants from 270 authorised officers brought in over the past five years, Andersen said authorised officers filled a range of roles in the Financial Crime Group supporting financial crime investigations.