People are being enticed into investing with what appears to be a reputable company only to lose their money, a dispute resolution service says.
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New Zealanders are being warned fraud cases are on the rise as Fraud Awareness Week begins.
Financial Services Complaints which is a financial dispute resolution service said consumers needed to be vigilant about fraud, following a noticeable increase in complaints around financial scams over the past year.
“From fraudulent transactions on travel cards, to merchants losing money when a consumer asked for a chargeback after receiving goods, we have seen a wide range of sophisticated incidents of fraud this year,” chief executive Susan Taylor said.
One of the most notable areas they were seeing an increase in was in fraudulent investments, including “bitcoin’ scams” she said.
Here people were enticed into investing with what appeared to be a reputable company only to lose their money “and sometimes quite substantial amounts of money”, Taylor said.
To protect themselves against scammers, she said people should make sure they do their homework.
“Don’t be rushed into making an investment, particularly with money that you can’t afford to lose,” Taylor said.
“If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”
Taylor said it was a common misconception that credit card companies would refund people if they were scammed.
“The circumstances in which consumers can recover funds spent on a credit card are limited….
