“The website certainly looked real,” Henshall said. “It had a registered trademark logo next to the words ‘All Blacks’. There was a news section, blog posts and links to what claimed to be livestream footage.”
Henshall, in a hurry to get access to the livestream before the match kicked off, got out his credit card and entered his details.
When the livestream failed to play, he was able to find another way to watch the match on his phone.
“I was fortunate, I quickly realised what had happened and got on to my bank immediately to cancel the card.”
Henshall hoped other All Blacks fans could be protected from the scammers.
A spokesperson for New Zealand Rugby said fans were encouraged to only stream matches from official and verified providers.
“We are aware of a fake site, which is claiming to offer fans the ability to stream All Blacks matches live, and we are working hard to have the site taken down. Fans in New Zealand wanting to stream matches should exclusively use official broadcast rights holder streams on Sky Sport Now, and those overseas should go through the official Rugby World Cup site.”
Jordan Heersping, of Crown agency Cert NZ, said his organisation worked to disable malicious sites and to disrupt scam activities when they are reported.
“We send the malicious website information out to our partners, who can use that information to detect access to these sites and block them according to their own capability and risk profiles. We also send a request to the hosting provider of the site to remove the malicious site from their infrastructure.
“However, this kind of request relies on the goodwill and cooperativeness of those service providers who are often international companies.”
Heersping said sports fans should try to make sure they use legitimate channels to watch sport online.
“Sites that offer what is usually a paid service for little or no cost may be trying to do something malicious with your information, financial details or access. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. If you have any suspicion about the legitimacy of a website, do not give away credit card information.”
He also recommended not accessing bank accounts or sending and receiving confidential information on free Wi-Fi.
Winston Aldworth is NZME’s Head of Sport and has been a journalist since 1999.
