New Twist On Current Scam

#1

Yesterday we posted about offenders impersonating Police Officers and demanding money to release a family member that they’d supposedly arrested. So, now there is a new twist on this scam! Offenders are involving the use of courier companies by impersonating ‘FedEx’ employees. They claim a ‘FedEx’ parcel is ready for delivery to a family member and try to obtain the phone numbers of both the victim and the family member. The family member is then called from what appears to be the victim’s cell phone. The offender informs the family member that the victim is in custody of the ‘New Zealand Federal Police’ and funds are required for their release. The scam is complex and aimed at people who are not necessarily aware of New Zealand law or Police practices. The ‘New Zealand Federal Police’ do not exist in New Zealand, and these are the types of red flags you should keep an eye out for when it comes to scams.

Please remember these calls are not legitimate. We recommend that you do not engage with the caller at all. If you have any concerns or questions, please call 0800 ASK BNZ (275 269). For further information on this scam, click here.

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#2

Recently there have been quite a few calls to our home-phone from
exotic locations such as Peru, Zambia and India. Our landline goes through the WiFi-modem so everything gets logged in the modem (a FritzBox model). All callers offered investment schemes or fixing computers.

Computers: if you tell them ‘No Windows spoken here’ that usually causes them to hang up straight away.

Investments: a bit harder to ward off. You might just have to lie telling the caller that you’re getting 80% interest paid daily…

Good fix to decline such funny calls (and even keep the phone from ringing at all): block them in your modem (works perfectly on the FritzBox).

Do not block calls where caller-ID is withheld: BNZ uses that feature when doing market research concerning their call centre.
Many other market research companies do the same, as well as political parties (every 3 years).

Tom.

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