Ambulance scammer active

A person pretending to be from St John is the latest rogue trying to fleece Northlanders.

Ambulance officials warned about the impostor yesterday during Fraud Awareness Week, which ends today.

St John Maungaturoto team manager Stephen Rosser said a St John member contacted him recently to advise he had been phoned by someone claiming to be from St John and asking for an email address in case of emergency.

"When the person said they did not have an email address, the scammer asked if he could give them his bank account number," Mr Rosser said.

"Our member asked why and the scammer said it was in case of an emergency, so the account could be billed without having to worry the family."

St John Northland district operations manager Tony Devanney said that, luckily, the St John member had been wise to the caller's ruse.

"He thought it was very odd and hung up."

Mr Devanney said it was the first time in his 22 years in St Johns that he had heard of someone trying to trick members of the ambulance organisation out of money.

"Hopefully, that's the end of it," he said.

St John has reported the matter to the Department of Internal Affairs and wants to make it clear to people that the phone calls are not legitimate.

"Under no circumstances would St John ever ask for bank account or personal details over the phone, or via email. We are very concerned that people who want to support our charity would be duped by such a scam," Mr Devanney said.

Alastair Stewart, a communications adviser with the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, which is promoting Fraud Awareness Week, said the three most common scams reported in Northland were:

The cold-calling computer virus scam, which was also the most widely reported scam across New Zealand last year. The message is simple: if someone calls to say there's a problem with your computer, it's a scam. Hang up.

The up-front money transfer scam. More commonly known as the Nigerian scam, this takes many forms but has one common trait - victims are asked to pay money up-front before they can get their promised riches.

The scammers claim you are entitled to money or want your help to transfer funds, but there are "fees" which you must pay first. You won't receive any money and will lose what you've paid.

The bank phishing and tax refund scam. Scam emails claiming to be from a bank direct people to genuine-looking website, where people enter their login details - handing them direct to the scammers. The tax refund scam is similar, with an email, purporting to be from IRD, claiming you are entitled to a tax refund.

Mr Stewart advised people to never click on links from emails claiming to be from their bank or the IRD.

Statistics show that one in 10 people approached by a scammer will hand over money. These victims lose an average of $5000 and some victims are losing hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The ministry says victims should report fraudulent activities to Scamwatch at: www.consumeraffairs.govt.nz.