Kiwis lose $500m to scammers

One in three Kiwis have fallen prey to scammers and – because most scams go unreported – we may be losing up to $500 million each year to cybercrime, a Westpac survey has found.

The survey of 1003 adults found 90 per cent of them were concerned about being scammed or defrauded. Scams can run through email, phone calls, text, mail, and door knocks.

Netsafe boss Martin Cocker said there was a high volume of scams in New Zealand at the moment.

Westpac NZ’s head of financial crime and security, Tiffany Ryan, said New Zealanders’ unease was warranted given the growing sophistication of scammers and their activities.

In the past year alone, Westpac’s financial crime team had prevented more than $22 million of fraud from occurring.

‘‘We have seen the numbers of attempted fraud increase on last year but, due to protections in place and increased surveillance, the amount being lost to fraud is decreasing,’’ Ryan said.

‘‘Card fraud is the biggest issue. Most scams go unreported but there are industry estimates that New Zealanders may be losing up to $500m each year to cybercrime and other scams.’’

In August, a Westpac customer was alerted to a bid to take more than $14,000 out of her account. The bank also replaced 30,000 customer bank cards after a global security breach at ticket vendor Ticketmaster.