Hardware firms hit by email scam

An email scam that left a Christchurch solar panel manufacturer $32,000 out of pocket earlier this year has returned, the New Zealand Police’s financial crime unit says.

Detective Sergeant Michael Cartwright said police stopped 1000 computer hard drives being sent to scammers overseas in recent weeks.

The hard drives were ordered from New Zealand suppliers and were awaiting shipping at a freight company in Auckland. Cartwright said he could not name any of the companies involved in the scam.

The victim companies had been tricked by fake purchase orders using altered email addresses purporting to come from New Zealand universities and a district health board.

The freight companies then received poorly spelt emails asking for the goods to be sent overseas. The freight companies reported the suspicious emails to police, Cartwright said.

He said the altered email addresses had minor punctuation changes, but looked legitimate.

The scammers emailed companies asking for a quote, typically for industrial or electronic goods. After receiving a quote, the scammer sent a purchasing order and paid for the shipping cost to have them delivered.

After the goods had been delivered the supplier of the goods would send an invoice to the university or DHB the scammer claimed to be from.

By the time the university or the DHB realised they had not placed the order, the goods had already been shipped to the scammer and the supplier was left thousands of dollars out of pocket.

Cartwright said four other businesses in the past two weeks had received emails for quotes from the universities of Waikato and Otago using altered email addresses.

The scammers had requested invoices for a $6500 industrial baking machine and a calorie counting machine worth about $20,000, Cartwright said.