Foreign fraudsters targeting Kiwis

New Zealanders are increasingly becoming a target for scammers who see greener pastures here for scams that have worked overseas, say authorities.

Cheap asphalting, shonky generators, fake travellers' cheques, phishing emails and fake goods on auction websites are all examples of fraud, say the police, Commerce Commission and auction website Trade Me.

Fraud awareness week, which started yesterday, was a timely reminder for New Zealanders to be vigilant, said Detective Sergeant David Kennedy of police national headquarters.

"We have seen some well-worn overseas scams and their perpetrators arrive on our doorstep over the past year or so."

In Wellington, a group of men, recent arrivals from England, offered asphalting jobs for cash. Some customers paid up to $20,000 for the work, some of which was so substandard they had to pay legitimate companies to redo it.

A group of Irish itinerants have also sold defective generators out of the back of a van - with fake invoices from a fictional overseas company.

"These scams are well known overseas and these itinerants come here hoping that New Zealanders are not as wise to them as people in the countries they have come from," Mr Kennedy said.

Another recent scam saw victims sent fake travellers' cheques by someone they had met online. They were then asked to send some of it back in cash.

"People shouldn't become paranoid about scammers, but they do need to realise that they can be vulnerable if they don't take some basic precautions," Mr Kennedy said. "You wouldn't give your credit card details to a stranger who approached you on the street, so don't give the information to someone who approaches you by phone or email."

The commission has also warned consumers to be alert after issuing more than 70 warnings over the sale of possible counterfeit clothing and footwear on the Trade Me website.

"Selling counterfeit goods harms the consumer and legitimate businesses," said Adrian Sparrow, commission director of fair trading.

Trade Me laid a complaint after its security tools identified a number of potentially counterfeit items. The identified traders were banned by the website.

Trade Me says the global economic recession will increase the economic motivation for people to scam.

It is picking counterfeiting and spear phishing - when hackers try to "fish" for personal and financial information via email - as the two online growth scams for this year.

Trade Me commercial chief Mike O'Donnell said he was expecting counterfeiting attempts to increase.

Consumer Affairs Minister Heather Roy said New Zealanders were estimated to be scammed out of $487 million a year.

Based on overseas studies, it was estimated about 5.75 per cent of New Zealanders had been scammed in the past year, with an average loss of $2500.

Ms Roy said fraudsters were becoming more sophisticated not only in the use of the internet, but door-to-door, post, telephone and text messages.

More information about fraud awareness week can be found at www.scamwatch.govt.nz.