Phone scammers target Whanganui library customers

Whanganui District Library has extended the due date on all borrowed books. Photo / Paul Brooks

Scammers have been targeting Whanganui District Library members.

Whanganui Library services manager Nicholas Keene said he was alerted by a library in Hawke's Bay, whose customers reported the calls.

"Hopefully people just recognise it the minute they hear it and hang up on the spot," Keene said.

"This is a good time to remind people of all online scams, because it's peak market time for scammers.

"I don't think they're being specific about where they are calling or the library they're mentioning, they're just mentioning the word 'library', getting someone to pay $10 and getting their bank details out of them.

"We thought we'd put the warning out there."

In this case, people from "the International Library Services" had been calling and asking for money for overdue fines.

Whanganui District Library would never phone someone in regard to overdue fines, Keene said.

"No one is accruing any overdues at the moment.

"All the due dates on people's books have been extended. We just keep bouncing that date out until it's a nice time for people to return.

"They don't have to worry about it, and even if they did owe a few dollars we certainly wouldn't be calling them during lockdown about it."

Any scams can be reported to Netsafe - www.netsafe.org.nz.

Last week the Chronicle reported on scammers who said they were calling on behalf of a telecommunications company. They took $11,000 from a Whanganui woman's bank account.