“They’re already in play now but they will crank up.”
He said it was hard for people to resist bargains, especially when the cost of living was high.
To capitalise on this, some scammers deployed “smishing” tricks, impersonating well-known New Zealand companies by text or email, asking people to click a link.
Scammers also used translation services and artificial intelligence to finesse their pitches.
Another scam involved trying to anticipate common consumer behaviour to get hold of passwords.
Anderson said he was targeted when recently cancelling his subscription to a well-known streaming service.
Soon he received an email, purportedly from the streaming service.
”How did they know? Well... it’s just that millions of people every single day subscribe and unsubscribe from these services.”
Chances are many people have signed up for Netflix and the likes of The White Lotus, or have cancelled Netflix plans, so scammers play a numbers game hoping to trap consumers.
Scammers knew lots of people had YouTube, Netflix, and Amazon accounts, so would send emails with generic subjects relating to these services.
Often these campaigns relied on the fact some people used the same password for multiple services - so tricking a person into handing over a Netflix password might get the scammer access to more sensitive personal information.
“Password managers are a good thing to have,” Anderson said.
Password managers can generate multiple, complex passwords, reducing the chances of someone using the same password for everything, or using an easy-to-guess password.
Anderson said some Kiwis mistakenly believed scammers only operated from overseas.
Shopping with trusted retailers was one way to scamproof yourself, the association said.
“Legitimate merchants will be easily accessible online and won’t ask for your personal details through links in texts and emails,” Banking Association chief executive Roger Beaumont said.
He urged online shoppers to make sure website addresses started with “https” and ended with a reputable domain name, such as .org, .com or .nz.
“If you followed a link to get to the site, do an extra search to confirm the site is genuine.”
Cybersecurity agency Cert NZ advised online shoppers to watch out for fake websites and fake sellers while searching for bargains.
Red flags could include the “business” having a contact page with non-business emails, such as Gmail.
