Tirotiro tāware

Scam check

If you’re concerned you’re being scammed, use our quick check tool to see if there’s something you need to be wary of, and find out what to do next.

Identify a scam by:

Was the sender unfamiliar to you?

Often, scam messages will come from a number you don’t recognise. They might look like they’re from a business or organisation you know, but they’ll be sent from what looks like a personal phone number.

Are you being asked to take action?

Scam messages usually say you need to do something urgently — like make a payment or confirm your account details. It’s usually not something you were expecting to get a message about, but it sounds important.

Is there a link in the message?

The message will often ask you to click on a link, so you can take the action the sender wants — whether that’s giving them personal details or paying for something you didn’t ask for.

Did you answer yes to any of these questions?

Was the sender unfamiliar to you?

Check the email address of the sender – it might look like it's come from a business or organisation you know, but if you check the sender's address it might not look quite right – for example, 'accounts@bnz.org.nz' instead of the usual .co.nz address.

Are you being asked to take action?

Scam emails usually say you need to do something urgently – like make a payment or confirm your account details. It’s usually not something you were expecting to get an email about, but it sounds important.

Is there a link in the email?

The email will often ask you to click on a link, so you can take the action the sender wants – whether that’s giving them personal details or paying for something you didn’t ask for.

Did you answer yes to any of these questions?

Has someone asked you for money on social media?

Social media scammers will often pose as someone you know and tell you they're in trouble, to see if you'll give them money to help them out.

Have you bought something on social media but not received it?

Scammers use social media to make money by offering goods for sale that don't actually exist – often through the marketplace or ads for a fake shopping site. And, if you try to contact them about a purchase you've made, you don't hear back from them.

Has someone you know contacted you to say they think your account has been hacked?

Sometimes, you won't know anything's gone wrong with your account unless someone contacts you to say they've received an odd message from you. If a scammer has accessed your account, they might be using it to try to scam other people.

Did you answer yes to any of these questions?

Did the phone call come out of the blue?

Scam phone calls are often unexpected, or they'll be from a company you don’t normally deal with. Sometimes a scammer will contact you and ask you to call them back – or you might see an ad on a website saying you've got a virus, and to call them to sort it out.

Did the caller ask for access to your computer, or personal information?

Scammers will often say they need to download something to your computer, and they'll ask you to give them access to it. Or they'll ask you to share the login details for some of your accounts so they can fix a problem for you.

Did it seem urgent?

Scam callers will usually claim you have an issue that needs to be fixed urgently, and will make it seem like it's important to get it sorted straight away.

Did you answer yes to any of these questions?

Do the prices or products on the website look too good to be true?

Often, scam sites will be selling goods at a much lower price than you've seen them on other websites or in store. They might also have loads of 5 star reviews that seem fake.

Does the website content or the web address seem wrong somehow?

Some scam sites might not be as professional as you'd expect. You might see it has bad spelling, broken links, social media links that don't work, missing pages, or a web address (the URL) that just doesn’t seem quite right. And if they do have social media pages, they probably won't have many followers.

Do the contact details for the company look out of date or dodgy?

The contact details for scam websites – like their physical address, email address or phone number – will often either not work, or be missing altogether. 

Did you answer yes to any of these questions?

Looking for something else?

Scam check for business

If you’re concerned your business is being scammed, use our quick check tool to see if there’s something you need to be wary of, and find out what to do next.
Scam check

Latest scams and alerts

Browse our latest alerts to see what kind of scams are circulating online right now.
Alerts – CERT NZ