High-value scams are costing New Zealand
The NCSC’s latest Cyber Security Insights report shows Aotearoa lost almost $5M to scams and fraud in one quarter.
New Zealanders reported fewer online incidents to the NCSC in Q4 2024 than they did in Q3. But they reported losing more money - $6.8M compared to $5.5M in Q3.
“This rise is because of an increase in incidents with large losses,” NCSC Threat and Incident Response team lead Tom Roberts said. The National Cyber Security Centre received 17 reports of incidents with financial loss over $100,000 – the highest number we have seen in a quarter. Most of these were reported by individuals.
“We are talking about a lifetime’s worth of savings being lost in one incident,” Roberts said.
The incidents were varied in nature – ranging from investment and cryptocurrency scams to unauthorised transfer of money.
“A lot of these scams start out with an email or a phone call,” Roberts said. “You might get a call claiming to be from your bank’s fraud team, or you may get an invoice about a recent property deal asking you to urgently transfer money to an account.”
“Once scammers have your attention, and your trust, they can trick you into sending them money, or get into your accounts and do it themselves.”
The latest Cyber Security Insights report explains how to identify some common scam calls and how to protect yourself online. You can read the full report here.(external link)