Ministry of Justice warns of scam

The Ministry of Justice is warning people about a scam which involves people posing as ministry staff.
It says a person or group, claiming they are calling on behalf of a bank or the ministry, are contacting people offering refunds on fines.
``Several of the callers appear to be quite convincing, and in some cases have known the full names of the people and who they bank with. I believe this to be another version of an old scam,'' Ministry of Justice national operations manager Prema Waghorn said.
She warned the scammers were trying to obtain personal and financial information from people.
Ms Waghorn said the ministry did not engage outside agencies to make calls on its behalf or charge people a fee when it makes refunds.
``The ministry has been in touch with each of the eight people to date who have alerted us. I urge anyone who receives a suspicious phone call purporting to be from the ministry to contact the ministry on 0800 770 025 and let the police know,'' she said.
It was unclear how the scam artists had obtained people's contact details, she added.