Police have arrested a UK national who duped Kiwis out of nearly $300,000 by posing as a police officer.
Detective Senior Sergeant Craig Bolton said 18 Aucklanders allegedly fell victim to the scam.
The 25-year-old alleged offender would call the victims on a landline phone impersonating an officer and giving a fake badge number. He said victims are told their assistance is needed with an open investigation.
Bolton said the victims were aged between 56 and 90, with the majority over 80.
They are spread out “right across Auckland” and have a combined loss of $297,700.
“The scam will always involve this so-called officer asking for financial information or asking you to withdraw cash to be collected as part of an investigation into banks,” Bolton said.
The alleged scammer was arrested after a foot chase through central Auckland yesterday.
He is expected to appear in the Auckland District Court today on 22 counts of obtaining by deception, attempting to obtain by deception and escaping custody.
Bolton said his bail will be opposed.
“We will allege in court that this man, who only arrived in New Zealand in early June, was on his way at the time to collect more cash from a previous victim,” Detective Senior Sergeant Bolton says.
“Instead, real detectives turned up at the victim’s doorstep to advise him he was about to be scammed out of $20,000 in cash.
“This man’s alleged actions betrayed the goodwill of vulnerable and elderly members of our community.”
Earlier this year, Bolton told the public how to identify the scam.
He said New Zealand Police do not contact people seeking their banking details, card numbers, pin numbers or passwords.
Police also advised people their officers did not call and offer prize money.
Other advice was for people to “trust your instincts” if something seemed too good to be true. If people were uncertain they were speaking to a real policeman, they should ask for their details, hang up, phone 105 and ask for that officer to confirm.
Police asked anyone who had fallen victim to a scam to report it to them. People could also get up to speed with scams on the NetSafe website.
Victim airlifted to hospital by rescue helicopter.