Citizens Advice Bureau
Scams, like pesky weeds, keep coming up in the nor-west. The key is identifying them before they spread their havoc.
Citizens Advice Bureau Helensville has a national database which includes plenty of detailed information about scams, including from many official sources.
Board Secretary Rani Timoti says scams with sophisticated and professional presentations have been happening in the Helensville district, mainly through phone calls. “Local police say scams are covered under fraud and cases are investigated.”
Reporting scams is the best defence, especially to organisations like Netsafe: www.netsafe.org.nz
Netsafe chief executive Martin Cocker says the simple message of ‘If it seems too good to be true, it probably is’ no longer reflects the reality of the online scam and fraud landscape.
“It would be more accurate to say: ‘Even if it seems like a reasonable deal, stop and think is this real or a scam.”
The organisation advises reporting the fraud, even if you are embarrassed, because you help prevent others being caught in the same trap.
Common online scams include: tech support, romance, cold calling, email phishing, investment opportunity and em
ployment or work-at-home and business email compromise.
Basic precautions include realising scammers want your personal details, ultimately to take your money and even steal your identity.
Know who you deal with - research the one (group, organisation, company) contacting you. Delete suspicious texts, pop-up windows or emails. Always stop and think instead of being pressured into making a quick decision.
More information available @ www.cab.org.nz
