Kiwis urged to be vigilant and trust their intuition
An alarm has been sounded against a highly sophisticated scam where fraudsters disguise as bank workers and pretend to combat fraud.
Malcolm Clarke, a New Zealand children’s book author who goes by malcolm_credits on TikTok, has posted a viral video warning of the scam, which aims to swindle money off Kiwis’ accounts
Clarke said that when he noticed strange transactions from his Kiwibank account, he cancelled his card and was then told by the bank that their fraud department would look into it, NZ Herald reported.
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Clarke afterwards received a no-caller-ID phone call claiming to be from Kiwibank asking for his access code. Suspicious of the anonymous caller, Clark then got another call from the scammer on an 0800 number asking for passwords and the answers to his security questions.
While he felt lucky that he didn’t fall for the scam, Clarke was worried others might.
“I'm in a lucky position, but I'm worried as scams escalate, especially for those who are less digitally experienced and more vulnerable,” he told NZ Herald.
Kiwibank is encouraging customers to be vigilant. A spokesperson said scammers claiming to be from a bank’s fraud or cybersecurity team make these scams particularly convincing, which can catch customers off-guard and make the questions sound legitimate. Scammers may ask for security information, but what they are actually after is to steal customers’ personal information, the spokesperson said.
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Netsafe’s Sean Lyons said scams similar to the one Clarke experienced are quickly evolving and aim to stay unrecognisable to the public.
“Although as illegal as it is, it’s a business. And therefore, they make sure that they stay ahead of the game as much as any business does,” Lyons told NZ Herald. “At the point of which a scam is easily recognisable people stop falling for it, people stop paying the money and their business suffers.”
What makes Clarke’s experience worrying, Lyons said, was that the scammers praised Clarke on his ability to question the trustworthiness of the situation.
“Every time he talked about not giving personal information, the scammers almost applauded him that it was great that he was doing that and that it was the right thing to do, it's a practised thing,” Lyons said.
Lyons urged the public to trust their intuition.
“Question everything; more than just question them, don't bother questioning them. You can politely end the call and contact your bank, not via a phone number they've given you,” Lyons told NZ Herald.
