North & South – June 2019

12 | NORTH & SOUTH| JUNE 2019

Fraud Squad

Adviceplusa “pleaseexplain”on avoidingthe

online scammers, and Waikaia’s ghost railway.

FLASH FICTION: SHORT, SHORT STORY WINNERS + “WHY I LOVE BIG PHARMA”

IN THE WAKE OF TRAGEDY

• • Pictures of hopeDo “lone wolf”
  terrorists really act alone?


• An antidote to bigotry

NOTWHYTOOYOU’RESMART

TO10+BETOPSWINDLEDTIPS

TO STAY SAFE

THE SINISTER WORLD OF

ONLINE

SCAMS

conversation

ONECLICKAWAY

ThankyouforyourMay

coverstoryThePowerofPer-

suasion, puttingthespotlight

ontheexplosioninfrauds

andscams,andthemisery

thisformofcrimewreakson

families.Asoneofthepeople

interviewed,workinginfraud

investigationandprevention

attheCommissionforFinan-

cialCapability(CFFC),I was

stokedtoseeyouhighlight

thefactthatnooneisim-

munefromthesecriminals’

increasingsophistication,and

wearealljustoneclickaway

frombecomingtheirnext

victim. We need to shift the

blamefromthevictimstothe

offenders,andacknowledg-

ingwe’reallatriskwillhelp

changethatmindset.

Anothermovethatwould

helpNewZealandvictimsis

theestablishmentofa central

scamagency.Thesplintered

natureoffraud-reporting

organisationsmakesit hard

forvictimstoknowwhereto

turn.There’sNetsafeforon-

linescams;CERT(theCyber

EmergencyResponseTeam)

forcyber-securityfraudsuch

as“sextortion”,blackmail,

phishingandmalware;the

FMA (Financial Markets

Authority)forinvestment

scams;theDepartmentof

InternalAffairsforspamand

(untilrecently)postalscams;

IDCareforidentitytheft;

telephonecompaniesfor

phonescams;thepolice;and,

forgeneralinformation,

ConsumerProtection,Scam-

watchandus.

Eachorganisationdoesa

fantasticjobinitsrespective

area,butconsumersarecon-

fused.Iftheydoapproachan

agencyandit’sthewrong

one,theyarepassedon– and

mustgothroughthetrauma

ofexplainingthecrime

they’vesufferedoverand

overagain.Nowonderthey

giveup:ourresearchshows

a vastnumberofpeopledon’t

botherreportingscamsbe-

causetheythinknothingcan

bedone.The13,000instances

ofonlinescamsreportedby

Netsafein2018,withtotal

lossesof$33million(triple

the 2017 figure),isthetipof

theiceberg.

IfNewZealandersknew

therewasonecentralagen-

cythatcouldhelpthem,we

wouldhavea muchbetter

understandingofhowbigthis

problemreallyis.Acentral

pointcouldprovidea rapid

responsetoreports,triage

casestoexpertsindifferent

typesoffraudwhoknowthe

buttonstopushtostopmon-

eybeinglost,starttracking

offenders, put preventative

Fraud

investigator

Bronwyn

Groot

KEN DOWNIE

“IfNew

Zealanders

knewtherewas

onecentral

agencythat

couldhelp

them,wewould

knowhowbig

thisproblem

really is.”