Afterpay users targeted in phishing scams

Afterpay is encouraging users to protect their accounts from scammers, after an increase in fraudulent phishing text and email activity.

In an email to the buy now, pay later scheme users, Afterpay said it was aware of the activity across the financial services industry.

‘‘These are being undertaken by scammers attempting to gain unauthorised access to customer accounts,’’ it said.

The scams come after banking ombudsman Nicola Sladden said there had been a rise in banking scams. ‘‘Year on year we see an increase in fraud and scam cases,’’ she said.

‘‘Numbers were up 50% from the previous quarter in our latest quarter (April to June 2022) and this was also double that received at the same time last year.’’

Last month, Kiwibank had to increase its number of investigators to deal with the growing number of phone spoofing scam victims.

A Kiwibank spokesperson said the scams had increased three-fold over the past three months but could not say how many customers had fallen victim to them.

Afterpay’s tips to protect your account from phishing:

■ Do not share your password or verification code with anyone.

■ Exercise caution before opening links within text messages or emails.

■ Always inspect the link before clicking, even if it appears to come from Afterpay.

■ Regularly check that you have the latest version of the Afterpay app.

■ Check your account contact information is up-to-date.

■ Do not use your Afterpay password with other accounts such as email or social media.

■ For emails, double-check where the email is coming from.

■ Look out for grammatical errors and typos in text messages and emails, as this can be an indication of phishing.