An impersonation site trying to tell people Christopher Luxon had cancelled pension payments sparked a flurry of calls to Age Concern. Photo / Mark Mitchell
An impersonation site trying to tell people Christopher Luxon had cancelled pension payments sparked a flurry of calls to Age Concern. Photo / Mark Mitchell
An imposter webpage warning people the Prime Minister had canceled superannuation payments caused concern for senior citizens.
Age Concern said the fake story, on a site designed to look like the Herald and resembling recent Clarke Gayford scams, was noticed by numerous members in Northland recently.
“I had some peoplein the Far North saying ‘has Christopher Luxon canceled the pension?’” Natasha Muir of Age Concern said.
“It was a fake Herald site. It was asking you to pay $410 to secure your super.”
Muir said she urged people who saw the advert to contact police, Netsafe, or cybersecurity agency Cert NZ.
Some media personalities have been targeted for several years, but a spate of fake news stories and ads has exploded since May 20.
The scammers pay Meta for ads that promote and push their content on Facebook to audiences in New Zealand and globally.
But Muir said it was not just the elderly who were vulnerable.
“The trend is anybody at any age is getting scammed these days.”
Muir said in response to reports of more old-fashioned door-to-door scammers, some Age Concern chapters such as Canterbury published lists of preferred traders who had been vetted.
Catfish and crypto scams
Meanwhile, a private investigator said romance scams were still rampant and likely to get more devious.
Julia Hartley Moore said a proliferation of platforms, artificial intelligence and other technology were helping catfish and other romance scams grow more sophisticated.
Hartley Moore said romance scams were rife on dating apps, according to her clients.
“It’s mainly the dating apps and then they just want to get off the dating app and onto an email.”
But potential catfish targets could still protect themselves by following one rule - never giving money to strangers, no matter how elaborate the scam might be.
Hartley Moore said scammers scanned death notices, then turned up in neighbourhoods offering to do odd jobs or otherwise help out isolated senior citizens.
The scammers ingratiated themselves, sometimes winning the older person’s trust and taking more and more money.
“It’s horrible but a lot of older people are very trusting and they’re not online.”
Hartley Moore said scam victims, regardless of age, often took a long time to admit they’d been conned.
“They convince themselves it’s not happening to them.”
A person poses with an iPhone capturing a text scam conversation. Photo / Jason Dorday
“Anything to make it happen fast...It just doesn’t work.”
Funeral scammers
Even a funeral director has recently warned people about posting funeral details to social media platforms.
The North Shore funeral services provider recently told an Auckland family to beware of sharing funeral details on social media, especially Facebook.
The company did not elaborate but the UK’s National Association of Funeral Directors outlined what might be happening.
“It’s very simple. Scammers take genuine funeral information from the internet and post links to a supposed livestream of the funeral, asking for credit card details to secure the ‘booking’.”
Once people obliged, their card details were in the hands of fraudsters.
Other funeral scams involved fake profiles and fake tribute pages.
An Auckland businessman said he spoke to BNZ’s credit card disputes team after going on the “Williams Auckland” Facebook page.
He told the Herald he received no reply from “Williams Auckland” since contacting them on August 28.
He asked his bank to reverse a transaction after saying clothes bought online were “of inferior quality” and he did not wish to keep them.
He said the bank agreed not to charge his card, and he would not be withdrawing his dispute.
The upset customer said Williams Auckland was clearly not from New Zealand.
Its website was created this year, despite the business claiming it had been trading for years.
Williams Auckland had claimed actor Russell Crowe and singer Anna Coddington were among its customers - but Coddington’s agent told the Herald she had no association whatsoever with Williams Auckland.
Cybersecurity agency Cert NZ previously said it had noticed dozens of sites in recent months with a pattern of having a new website, with a local city named in the web address, selling clothes.
A similar new site has the URL ending with “-wellington.com”.
On its page, it said a man named Oliver had run the business since 1984.
The business website was set up in June and had a foreign registrant.
Some Facebook users said the shop did in fact sell and send clothes but wondered why it had a doctored biography and said some products weren’t as described.
Another similar site was created last month.
“Based in Auckland, we ensure fast, trusted shipping to Australia, New Zealand, and beyond,” it said.
But there were no physical locations mentioned for the site.
According to antivirus company Norton, fake e-shops may feature:
Unrealistic discounts;
Contrived reviews and endorsements;
Fake company information and limited or unbelievable “about us” or “contact us” sections;
Unusual payment methods including wire transfers, bitcoin, or gift cards;
Claims to never run out of stock and have a vast variety of products for sale.
John Weekes, online business editor, has covered rounds including consumer affairs, crime, court and politics for the Herald, Herald on Sunday, Stuff and News Corp Australia.
