After a week-long holiday relaxing in the Far North, Chloe Johnson panics when she tries to buy skincare products online and discovers the card is missing from its usual home inside her wallet.

Banks and police are trying to stay ahead of wily credit card fraudsters - but as long as banks mail pre-activated cards, the problem will persist.

Card fraud is now big business. The victim may be in New Zealand; an offender may well be in Russia, Germany or Taiwan."Cash, they told us, was old hat. Paper money was an anachronism from another era, an idea whose time had passed.

A highly manipulative fraudster who conned a former boyfriend out of $80,000, wrecking his business and "destroying his life", has been jailed for four years.

An Auckland banker faces a jail term after stealing nearly $1 million from his clients.

The elderly founder of the failed Five Star group, Neill Williams, has been sentenced to three years and seven months in prison for misleading investors - a longer jail stint than any of his colleagues from the set of finance companies.

Two jailed Capital+Merchant directors have failed in their "strawman" bid to take their case to the Supreme Court.

Five Star group founder Neill Williams has been jailed for 3 years seven months for misleading investors.

When Five Star finance company boss Neill Williams is sentenced in court today, it will be just the latest stage in a series of misadventures, reports Hamish Fletcher.

The couple alleged to be at the centre of a $375,000 benefit scam can be named for the first time.

A globetrotting conman who came to New Zealand on a purported $69 million property spending spree will spend the next 14 years in prison in the United Kingdom.

It wasn't just Xtra emails being hit by scammers this week.

A couple alleged to have ripped off taxpayers for $375,000 in Work and Income payments have been allowed to keep their names secret for now.

Robert Whale expressed relief yesterday when he was acquitted in a Serious Fraud Office case, but the former Dominion Finance director still has to return to the High Court in June for separate Financial Markets Authority proceedings.

A couple alleged to have ripped off taxpayers to the tune of $375,000 in Work and Income payments have been allowed to keep their names secret for now.

A cancer charity under investigation over its spending has stopped paying its staff while it considers whether to resume operations in New Zealand.

The Government has welcomed leaked documents shining the light on shady politicians and arms dealers allegedly laundering their ill-gotten billions through Kiwi firms.

Two men accused of using fake passports and other documents are facing several forgery and deception charges.

Scammers are back to their old tricks, according to reports.

A former Goldman Sachs trader pleaded guilty to wire fraud yesterday, admitting that he caused his company to lose US$118 million ($140 million) in 2007 when he put US$8 billion at risk.

A former Tauranga businessman who siphoned $317,000 from a motorbike dealership was motivated by "greed, greed and more greed'', a judge has said.

Former Dominion Finance and North South Finance director Terry Butler has died.

A woman whose family lost more than $300,000 to a gold trader facing fraud charges is worried about hundreds of thousands she invested in a water-bottling project.

A New York judge has agreed to release Australian financial analyst and accused inside trader Trent Martin from jail, ending three months behind bars in Hong Kong and Brooklyn.

A Whangarei company director who fraudulently obtained more than $77,000 from the Accident Compensation Corporation by submitting false invoices will not have to pay the money back.

A cancer charity has suspended fundraising in New Zealand amid questions over how its money is spent.

Taxpayers are being warned not to fall for hoax phone calls from fraudsters telling them they are eligible for unclaimed money or a tax refund.