Kiwis being hit hard by financial scams - Gen

New Zealand joined a handful of Nordic countries and the Czech Republic in being among the nations hardest hit by financial scams in the three months to June 30.

That’s according to cybersecurity company Gen, which has well-known security softwaRE brands like Norton, Avast, LifeLock, Avira, AVG in its stable.

“Attackers are using celebrities, global events, and brands as shiny lures,” Gen pointed out, a technique that nearly saw me fall for a scam a couple of months ago when I came across a deal on Facebook that seemed too good to be true. It was.

An advert seemingly from The Rockshop, a retailer of musical instruments with outlets around the country, was celebrating the 60th anniversary of iconic amplifier make Marshall by selling off 60 mini-amps for just $3 each. 

I quickly clicked on the ad and was taken through to an e-commerce page and informed that I was among the lucky 60 able to take advantage of the $3 deal. It was only as I was staring at a legitimate-looking shopping cart screen, where I’d been asked to enter my credit card details, that I managed to catch myself. 

If it seems too good to be true, it probably is, I reminded myself. I went back to Facebook and searched for the official Rockshop Facebook page. It was not the one that was offering the celebratory Marshall amp for a token $3.

This was the post I was greeted with on the Rockshop website, which has 17,000 followers. How did Facebook allow a scam artist to set up a page masquerading as the Rockshop NZ and allow it to operate long enough to attract 2,200 followers? It’s yet another example of social media platforms doing an inadequate job of policing their own platforms.

The post from the real Rockshop alerting followers to the scam Marshall offer.

I’m proud of myself that I was wary enough not to enter my credit card details, which would likely have been captured on the bogus e-commerce website and used to make unauthorised transactions somewhere else.

But many Kiwis haven’t been as fortunate. CERT NZ, the government cybersecurity agency, hasn’t reported figures for Q2 yet, but for Q1 noted that $6.6 million in direct financial loss was reported, up 84% from Q4 2024. 19% of incidents reported financial loss. Unreported losses would, naturally, be much higher.

Gen is very familiar with the type of social media scams that targeted the Rockshop.

“We frequently write about the principle of this particular scams, which commonly leverages paid ads on social platforms,” Gen’s Threat Team wrote in its latest report.  

“These advertisements are becoming increasingly innovative. As noted in our previous report, scammers are now using deepfake technology and enlisting various celebrities of the different regions in order to better target users. Additionally, they often employ sensationalist headlines to draw attention. It doesn't always have to be just about celebrities, sometimes they take advantage of the action, like the recent summer games in France.

“After clicking on the advertisement, the user is redirected to a prepared scam page, where the content of the ad is then supported by, for example, a fake news page or a form where the user has to fill in specific personal data,” the report adds.

So financial scams are definitely on the increase, and New Zealand screams ‘red’ in Gen’s latest heat map pointing to where financial scams are having the greatest impact.

NZ in dubious company on financial scams

“We continue to see cybercriminals expand their toolkits with even more uses of AI to strengthen their attacks,” says Siggi Stefnisson, chief technology officer at Gen. 

“Scammers are cunning and adept at exploiting what is most likely to be on people’s minds – whether it has to do with elections, love or financial security. Now with AI and other new tech, their schemes are more sophisticated and convincing than ever before. We urge everyone to stay informed and alert.

Gen’s reporting draw on data from over 500 million users globally. For the second quarter it also found:

- A 46 percent increase in attacks year-on-year 

- Gen blocks more than one billion unique attacks every month 

- Kiwis are still falling for tech support scams and invoice scams.

Read the full Q2 Gen Threat Report here.