The move is to deal with a spike of phone spoofing scam victims
Kiwibank has hired more investigators to deal with the increasing number of phone spoofing scam victims.
Phone spoofing is when a scammer falsifies the source of a phone call and makes it appear to be coming from a known source – like a bank.
But one Kiwibank customer, who did not want to be named for privacy reasons, said she was given the runaround by Kiwibank and had to wait for nearly a week to get back the $2,000 she almost lost to the spoofing scam, Stuff reported.
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According to Kiwibank spokesperson, the scams had grown three-fold over the past three months. However, she could not say how many customers had fallen victim.
“What we know is there has been a significant increase in volumes and complexity of fraud and scams across the entire financial services industry in recent months,” she told Stuff.
The scam victim contacted Kiwibank and was told to email the fraud team and file a police report, so they could kick off the investigation.
She said the bank’s internet banking terms and conditions stated if customers followed the protocol, the victims would be refunded while the fraud was investigated.
“After several phone calls of trying to get someone to help me, I was told the fraud team were busy, and the Kiwibank employee had sent them an email asking me to be contacted ASAP, in that I was a high priority given I had no money and kids to look after,” she told Stuff.
She was then told by Kiwibank via a phone call that approval for the refund would be sought. And on July 13, she said she received confirmation that the refund had been processed and that it could take up to 48 hours to show in her account. The refund finally reached her account on Monday.
The spokesperson said the bank acknowledged such experiences were stressful for customers and apologised if there had been delays in the processing.
“As soon as we are made aware of a customer being scammed, we contact them detailing the investigation process, provide support and education material, as we are finding once a customer falls for a scam, they are likely to be a target again in future,” she told Stuff.
The Kiwibank spokesperson said the bank had raised the number of investigators to handle the growing caseload and that its customer protection staff were working through cases as quickly as possible. She did not say, however, how many staff had been added.
“Due to the high number of scams presently, at times the process is taking longer than usual,” she said.
Banks have joined forces with Cert NZ, Consumer Protection, and Te Tari Taiwhenua Department of Internal Affairs to warn people to beware of new threats from fraudsters.
“Kiwibank is focused on educating customers, so they don’t become victims of fraud,” the Kiwibank spokesperson said.
Banking Ombudsman Nicola Sladden said fraud and scam cases rose 50% in the three months to June compared to the same period to April and “was also double that received at the same time last year.”
Sladden said her office had received more than 500 scam cases so far this year across all banks, with phone spoofing among the most complained-about techniques reported over the past few months. The ombudsman said she did not know, however, how many people had fallen victim to spoofing scams because scams were recorded by type rather than the technique used.
A bank is generally liable for unauthorised transactions, provided the customer has followed the bank’s terms and conditions and taken reasonable steps to secure their banking.
“Where a customer has been tricked into paying money to a scammer, the bank will usually only be liable if it has failed to identify and act on red flags of fraud,” Sladden told Stuff.
