Real life scam stories

Page last updated: 12 May 2020

Unfortunately, a number of New Zealanders have lost their hard-earned savings to investment scams. Scams are on the increase and can often be sophisticated, with some scammers even going as far as creating fake news stories and websites to dupe victims.

Below are five real stories of everyday Kiwis who fell victim to scammers, although their names and photographs have been changed.

Samena197square — Don’t just trust: Samena was scammed by a co-worker
Samena works fulltime in the agricultural sector in Auckland. She’s saving for a house and was looking for ways to make her deposit grow faster.
She lost $2,300 after a co-worker she looked up to as an “older sister” talked her into giving money to a global cryptocurrency scam called OneCoin.

Investment Scams - Real life scam stories, Bob — Know the scam warning signs: Bob’s story highlights the tactics scammers use
Bob is a consultant who lives in Christchurch. He’s invested in shares for many years, owns his own home, and is in KiwiSaver.

Recently, Bob lost $67,000 through a ‘boiler room’ share scam after an overseas company called him, offering him the chance to invest in a pharmaceutical firm.

Investment Scams - Real life scam stories, Diana — Don’t let those ads fool you: Diana lost thousands investing in binary options
Diana works full-time and lives in the Bay of Plenty. She is married with children, owns a house, and invests in KiwiSaver and some term deposits. She doesn’t consider herself an experienced investor.
Diana recently lost around US$5,000 investing in binary options.

Investment Scams - Real life scam stories, John — Beware boiler room scams: John’s story shows how scammers target investors
John recently lost US$39,750 through a ‘boiler room’ share scam.
John was contacted by an Asian research company doing a survey of New Zealand businesses. A week later, he received another call. This time it was from a trading company based in China asking if he wanted to purchase pre-IPO shares in Alibaba Group.

Investment Scams - Real life scam stories, Simon — Supporting scam victims: read how Simon helped his father-in-law spot a scam
What would you do if you thought a family member was being scammed?
That was Simon’s dilemma after he became concerned about his father-in-law Richard. Simon believes the scammers first made contact with Richard by ringing him to take part in a phone survey - a classic scamming tactic. By taking the survey, the scammers find out personal finance details about their potential victim. Richard, who has been involved in the church for many years, was looking for good investments to enable him “to help other people”.

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