Should it be able to form a government after the election, the Labour Party has promised to set up an ‘Anti-Scamming-Unit’ to protect people from getting caught in a digital ruse.
The party’s commerce and consumer affairs spokesperson Duncan Webb said nine out of 10 New Zealanders were targeted by scams within the past year.
It was only last month that a young man was sentenced in Masterton District Court for fraudulent online listings [among other charges]. His scam involved advertising items for sale online and then deleting the listing after receiving a deposit.
Other common scams take the form of a call from an unknown number, with the caller pretending to be a person or authority known to the victim who is asking for personal information or money.
An international experiment recently published by medical journal JAMA Network looked at how susceptible older people are to digital swindles.
Researchers created a fake scam – presented as a government agency reaching out about a personal data leak – that was targeted at participants in an ageing study.
They found that while 68.5 per cent of the 644 people contacted ignored the scam, 15.1 per cent were “engaged but sceptical”, and 16.4 per cent fell for it entirely.
Niki Jones, Wairarapa’s community collaboration lead for Digital Seniors – an online assistance service – said he has witnessed this locally.
“We’ve experienced people who have lost sums of money, although I think in most experiences they get it back from the bank.”
Most banks are “generally supportive”, but Jones said it can be hard to access that support.
“Registering the scam with police and at the bank, and figuring out what to do – there are many steps,” Jones said.
“That’s where we can come in and help.”
Digital Seniors was set up in 2018 to extend a helping hand to those over 65 who were feeling lost amid a high-speed tech takeover of many services.
It provides one-on-one support that guides seniors through how to use their devices, as well as friendly assistance with any tech troubles.
“We encourage people to slow everything down because scams are presented as something that urgently requires a response,” Jones said.
“So you just need to stop, talk to a family member, reach out to us at Digital Seniors, and take your time.”
An interesting pattern Jones noted in the local Digital Seniors community is that increasing awareness of scams – while a good thing – is also promoting a sense of fear when it comes to using digital devices.
“New Zealand has a bad case of digital exclusion, particularly for older people who have been left alone with it,” Jones said.
“People are dealing with the worst parts of the internet with scams. So we can help with that, but also teach the joys and possibilities that this technology brings.”
