Student ‘felt vulnerable because it was a violation of our culture’. Aroha Awarau reports.
A student says she was ‘‘freaked out’’ when international fraudsters chatted to her online in te reo Ma¯ ori before trying to scam her out of thousands of dollars.
Paretao Tipoki-Hansen received a private message from someone who had replicated her aunt’s Facebook page. They private messaged TipokiHansen, 19, claiming to tell her about a foundation which helped the elderly, disabled and unemployed.
Tipoki-Hansen had always spoken te reo with her aunt, and so she engaged with the fraudsters in her indigenous language.
She realised it was a scam when they told her she was eligible to apply for $150 million from the foundation and directed her to call a Los Angeles based telephone number for more details.
‘‘This freaked me out that they were using our language in this way,’’ the 19-year-old Otago University student said. ‘‘I felt vulnerable because it was a violation of our culture.’’
She immediately warned her aunt that her Facebook page and been replicated and someone was trying to extort money from her family and friends.
In hindsight, she says the
Ma¯ ori used by the scammers was ‘‘average’’ and suspects they were using a translation program, like Google Translate, to keep up with the conversation.
‘‘There weren’t any long pauses and the conversation was flowing, so it seemed like a