Victims of online scams are turning to online communities for help as they are too unsure and embarrassed to go to the police.
Photo: 123RF
Cyber security CERT New Zealand’s latest figures show more than 500 reports out of 2333 incidents were related to scam and fraud in the first three months of the year.
Michelle, who manages a 16,000-member Facebook group which aims to name and shame scammers, said the problem is far bigger than the officials know.
“Being on this page has really highlighted for me just how common and how frequent and prevalent scams are, and I think if you put too much emphasis on the police dealing with them, they’d just be inundated.”
She said a community-based approach to hunting down scammers allows for quick information sharing and transparency.
“The more we can actually publish these scams, get these scams out there into the public arena, so that people are aware of them, then hopefully people can start avoiding them.”
One scam victim, Craig Lim, got half of the money back for a camera purchase thanks to the group’s guidance.
He sent $310 to what looked like a reliable person from their Facebook profile, but became more skeptical as time went on.
The seller delayed sending the product for a month, with excuses like the post office being shut due to a public holiday, and later, her daughter being in hospital.
Lim was intimidated by the prospect of engaging with the officials, and instead went to the Scammer Check group for advice.
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