15% of Netizens Defrauded Every Year in New ZealandLatest figures from the Ministry of Consumer Affairs' Scamwatch (New Zealand) disclosed that nearly 15% of population have been attacked by scams or other means on the Internet. Scamwatch estimated that the financial loss caused to the country is estimated at $447 Million. The latest figures implied that 60% of frauds in New Zealand are estimated to be for an amount of $1,000 or less, whereas 13% of victims of these scams concede $20,000 or more. Scamwatch highlights the range of scam starting with phishing, wherein scammers employ fake mails claiming to be coming from recipient's bank and ask for private and confidential data including bank account number and PIN number, to charity scams and chain letters. Scamwatch Spokesman Richard Parlett stated that the 3000 scams discovered every year only implies that the problem is much larger than it appears, as per the news published by nzherald.co.nz on June 20, 2010. Parlett added that hopefully users are just clicking the delete button nowadays. Banking Ombudsman Deborah Battell stated that customers would be responsible for the money lost in case they have mistakenly or voluntarily revealed their passwords or PIN numbers to some unknown person, as per the news published by nzherald.co.nz on June 20, 2010. Further, with the Rugby World Cup approaching next year in New Zealand, Detective Sergeant John van der Heuvel from the police National Cyber Crime Centre, stated that Rugby World Cup can also be an attractive target for online fraudsters, as per the news published by fraud-news.com on June 20, 2010. Moreover, an unofficial site worldcup2011.com was discovered earlier in 2010, but it contained a crucial flaw which is that it displayed a picture of legend of rugby league, Stacey Jones, on its opening page. Scamwatch states that this helped in separating the unauthentic site from the authentic one. Lastly, users are recommended to be very careful when online. Most importantly, they should not believe any too good sounding message as it may most probably be a scam. Related article: “Loopholes did not cause online banking thefts”: ICBC » SPAMfighter News - 6/29/2010 |    |
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