Scammers posing as power company employees have stolen significant amounts of money from the banks accounts of at least three elderly people in the past week, police say.
The scammers called the victims - two from Queenstown and one a Christchurch resident - and told them they were from their power company.
They claimed they wanted to speak to the victim about either an unpaid bill or a contract renewal before passing on the call to a second person who said they were from the victims' bank.
The second scammer would then coerce the victim into disclosing their bank account and password to settle the bill.
In some cases, the caller threatened to disconnect their power if the victim refused to comply immediately, police said.