How scams work
Scammers look for ways to trick us into sharing our personal or financial information or giving away our money. Personal information includes:
- your date of birth
- address
- driver’s license or passport information
- internet banking passwords.
Scammers may try to contact you by email, text message, phone call, or through social media.
What to look out for
- Social media or news ads that promise low risk investments with high returns. Sometimes, these ads may be endorsed by New Zealand politicians or other high-profile individuals.
- A text or email that has spelling mistakes and starts with a generic greeting, rather than addressing you by your first name.
- Scammers often hide fake websites behind links that look genuine. Hover over links and attachments to check the URL. Our website will always link to rbnz.govt.nz and have a padlock symbol next to the URL to confirm we’re a secure website.
- You receive a call or text message from an overseas number. Scammers may also ask you to download an app or software to your mobile phone or computer, which they can use to access your personal information.
Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism
Under the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Act 2009, banks and other financial institutions have certain obligations. This includes verifying the identity of customers and that means they may ask you for information to help verify your identity. Doing this can help:
- reduce criminal activity and protect you from scams
- improve our financial reputation overseas
- meet our international obligations.
Under the AML/CFT legislation, banks and other financial institutions also need to report any suspicious activity to the police.
How the anti-money laundering law affects you | New Zealand Banking Association
What to do if you think you've been scammed
If you get a call from someone pretending to be from the Reserve Bank, hang up and don’t call them back.
Don’t give out any personal or financial information.
If you receive a suspicious email or text message pretending to be from the Reserve Bank:
- don’t reply to the email or text message
- don’t open any attachments, click on any links or download any software
- delete the email or text message.
- Don't give out any of your personal information.
- If you've been contacted by someone after clicking an ad, don't make any payments or transfer any money to them.
- Check the person or company offering you the investment is licenced by the Financial Markets Authority (FMA)
- Check the FMA warnings and alerts page to see if the person or firm is listed as a scam.
- Report any messages you receive to the social media platform.
If you think you’ve been the target of a scam:
- Contact the Police on 105, or report it online on the 105 website.
- Report investment scams to the Financial Markets Authority
- Report spam or nuisance texts to DIA by forwarding the message to 7726 for free.
Reporting will help prevent others from being scammed.
If you’ve handed over your credit card or payment details, call your bank straight away. If your phone or computer has been hacked, change all your passwords, and check your anti-virus software.
With new scams regularly surfacing, it’s important to educate yourself on the most common types of scams so you know what to look out for.