‘Companies Office’ scam invoices doing the rounds

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

COLLIER'S Menswear’s Phil Collier received a letter in the mail from “New Zealand - Companies” with a letterhead and structure similar to the New Zealand Companies Office.

He was about to sign and return the form with contact details and information about his business when he thought he had better read the small print. He smelled a rat when he noticed the annual billing fee of $1411.

“I just want to warn other people. It would be easy to sign that and send it away if you were in a rush,” Mr Collier said.

He alerted NetSafe, a Government department that looks into fake invoicing and cyber scam. It had already heard about this scam connected to portal-nz.org website.

“It looks like it is Gisborne’s turn,” said NetSafe digital project manager Chris Hails.

Businesses can lose a lot of money with these scams, he says. In 2014 NetSafe looked into 140 cases like this and they amounted to $788,000.

Mr Hails says NetSafe has taken 23 reports of the portal-nz.org website and the letter since April this year, with 10 reports from around the country in the past week alone. Yesterday there were three from Auckland businesses.

“The company behind the offer has been identified as sending out various fake invoices since 2009 from Belgium and Germany,” Mr Hails says.

No financial losses connected to the offer have been recorded yet. He says there is further guidance from Consumer Affairs on these fake directory scams for small business owners.

“Businesses should treat all invoices carefully, check the legitimacy of any offer and report their concerns via www.scamwatch.govt.nz or direct to NetSafe.”