Promised easy money, great prizes or true love?

That surprise lottery win in the mail, email claiming to be from your bank asking for your password, the ‘amazing’ online share offer — all these can be fronts for scams.

Don’t be sucked in. There are thousands of scams out there, and they’re all targeting you. Protecting yourself is simple: just don’t respond.

This is the key message being promoted during Fraud Awareness Week 2008, which runs from March 3rd to March 10th.

Scammers are criminals, acting illegally and can cheat you from anywhere in the world, re-inventing themselves and their scams to keep you guessing and the money flowing. They research how you live and invent scams that will appeal to you. The resulting scams are cunning, original and often masked with legitimacy.

Most scams originate from outside New Zealand and need people to do something before they can work. You can protect yourself by knowing how scams present themselves, and not responding. Once money is sent to an international scam it is virtually impossible to recover.

An offer that sounds too good to be true probably is - but thousands of New Zealanders are still being tricked into giving away their hearts, money or personal details.

The best way to protect yourself is to not respond.

Judith Tizard
Minister of Consumer Affairs

Tips to avoid being scammed

Whatever the scam, there are several common approaches used to draw you in. Two common approaches include:

Seducing you with great promises: Scammers get your attention by promising great prizes, true love or easy money. But before they deliver, they’ll ask you to send them money, or give them your bank account, credit card numbers, or other personal details. In the end, they never deliver what you expect and always rip you off.

Deceiving you with requests for your personal details which look official: Scammers shrewdly pretend to be legitimate banks or businesses. They approach you unexpectedly through leaflets, letters, emails, websites or phone calls with requests that seem like the real thing. Then they’ll give you a reason why they need your personal details. Genuine organisations don’t make such unsolicited requests. If you provide scammers with your personal details they could steal your money and your identity.

Once victims realise they’ve been ripped-off, they’re often embarrassed to admit what has happened and angry that little can be done to catch the con artists. But don’t be shy, it’s important to let people know about your experience so others can avoid being conned in a similar way.

To report scams to help protect others from them and for more tips on how to recognise them, check out www.SCAMwatch.govt.nz. And remember, the simplest way to fight a scam is not to respond.