Susan Edmunds.

New Zealanders are losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in bogus overseas investment deals – but sometimes victims don’t even want to admit they’ve been caught out.

Bronwyn Groot, manager of fraud education at the Commission for Financial Capability, said she regularly dealt with people who had been duped by investment scams. ‘‘It’s an absolutely huge problem. No one knows how big because they are not getting reported.’’

Victims were usually contacted by someone about an investment opportunity, promising high returns and little risk.

In her previous role as security and fraud co-ordinator with the BNZ she investigated at least two or three big cases a fortnight.

‘‘I even had one guy who wouldn’t listen to me when he lost $250,000, but by the time he reported it to police he had lost over a million.’’

Groot said the victims were often wealthy, experienced investors who were used to navigating deals.

She had dealt with chief executives who had been duped. ‘‘They may stay in it a lot longer because they don’t want to admit they’ve been caught out.’’