Fraud Awareness Week is from 1 to 8 March. Always remember the golden rule - if it sounds too good to be true it probably is!

Scammers have an arsenal of advanced tricks to separate you from your hard-earned cash. That's why Consumer, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs and many other companies and organisations are promoting Fraud Awareness Week (1 to 8 March). Because most scams are based overseas, they can't be foiled by New Zealand laws and so avoidance is the best defence.

Common scams include lotteries, cheap holiday deals, emails from your bank asking for information, and investment schemes with huge returns. Here are a few examples of how to identify scams and how to avoid them.

The warning signs include:

• The company not providing a physical address (don't rely on a PO Box number).
• Pressure to send money or act quickly.
• Any request for contact details and especially bank account details from a person or organisation you don't know.
• Claims that you've won a valuable prize, a bequest, or will make huge returns on an investment.
• Claims that the offer is not a scam.
• Claims that the scheme is endorsed by Consumer NZ or a government department.

To stay protected:

• Check a company is real: search on the internet for independent references, find its physical address, and see if others have reported it as a scam.
• Never give credit card, bank account, or personal details to any person or organisation you don't know – and never send money.
• Don't click on email links to banks or other businesses where you enter personal information, as these could lead you to a dummy site. Always type in the website address yourself.
• Remember the golden rule; if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!

More information

• Fraud Awareness Week and scams: www.scamwatch.govt.nz

More from consumer.org.nz

• Scams - our scam protection resources

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