{"id":587507,"date":"2026-09-02T02:50:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T02:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/587507\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T02:50:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T02:50:09","slug":"netsafe-reports-surge-in-bank-impersonation-scams-in-august","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/587507\/","title":{"rendered":"Netsafe reports surge in bank impersonation scams in August"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"PLRONTue\" style=\"display:none\">Netsafe chief online safety officer Sean Lyons said the figures suggest scammers may be changing the disguise they use, rather than the underlying tactics.<\/p>\n<p class=\"PLRONTue\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThe standout trend for August is scammers pretending to be banks. We\u2019ve seen the number of these reports reach its highest level this year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"PLRONTue\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cScammers know that people are more likely to engage when they believe they are dealing with an organisation they know and trust \u2013 and their bank is an obvious choice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"PLRONTue\" style=\"display:none\">Netsafe urged anyone who receives an unexpected call, text or email claiming to be from their bank to avoid responding directly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"PLRONTue\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cHang up, delete the message and contact your bank yourself using a trusted number,\u201d Lyons said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"PLRONTue\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cA genuine bank will never mind you taking that extra step to make sure you\u2019re speaking to them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"PLRONTue\" style=\"display:none\">Netsafe said the figures represent reports made to its organisation and do not count all scams in New Zealand. It said month-to-month movements should be treated as indicative.<\/p>\n<p class=\"PLRONTue\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cScammers constantly adapt their approach. The best defence is to slow down, question unexpected contact and verify it independently before taking any action,\u201d Lyons said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"PLRONTue\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cIf a message or phone call is supposedly from your bank, you don\u2019t need to prove anything to the person contacting you. End the conversation and make the call yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Stay ahead with the latest market moves, corporate updates, and economic insights by subscribing to our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/my-account\/profile\/newsletters\/?from=cmp\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/my-account\/profile\/newsletters\/?from=cmp\">Business newsletter<\/a> \u2013 your essential weekly round-up of all the business news you need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Netsafe chief online safety officer Sean Lyons said the figures suggest scammers may be changing the disguise they&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":587508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[79913,642,1643,138,134051,39053,156944,18441,87055,78,685,4486,130,18433,111,139,69,384,766,18434,1515,131,35431,102],"class_list":["post-587507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-adopting","tag-august","tag-bank","tag-business","tag-disguise","tag-doubled","tag-dupe","tag-fraudsters","tag-impersonation","tag-in","tag-last","tag-month","tag-more","tag-netsafe","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-people","tag-reports","tag-scams","tag-surge","tag-than","tag-unsuspecting","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}