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Scam warning and safe buying advice
It was Scam Awareness Week last week and we thought it would be timely to remind members about one scam attempt we’ve seen recently, and offer some tips to keep you safe.
These scammers know their game and have many tactics to try and get your hard-earned cash into their pockets. In the last couple of weeks, a new scam has reared its ugly head in New Zealand. It seeks to lure victims by combining the old age medium of newspaper advertising, with the new age technology of online phone calls via services like Skype (technically known as “voice over internet protocol” or VOIP).
It starts with a classified advertisement for a cheap vehicle popping up in one of the local newspapers around the country. Alongside a free-to-register email address (e.g. Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo) is a local New Zealand phone number purchased by a scammer that actually connects overseas, not locally. They are doing this through VOIP technology and number portability, which is brilliant if you want cheap calls to your friend in London, but not so great when you think you're calling someone in NZ to buy a car.
Victims are asked to pay by wire transfer (e.g. Western Union) which is a common sign of a scam. However, sometimes they’re asked to pay into a NZ bank account, and sadly the NZ bank account holder has been scammed as well. The offshore scammer will have hired the unwitting account-holder through a seemingly legitimate job offer to act as a 'mule'. The mule receives the victim's money into their NZ bank account and then sends it overseas to the scammer.
Here are some of the things that you should keep an eye out for, to ensure you don’t get scammed:
- Goods priced below market value
- Untraceable, free-to-register email address
- Crackly phone connection, perhaps with delays
- Refusal to let you see the goods
- Pressure to act quickly
This can be a tricky one to spot, so always remember the golden rule: 'If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is'. Take care out there, and for more information please check out our safe buying advice.