Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly spoke of the agenda in a cabinet paper released recently, though no further funds were assigned for execution.
The current approach will rectify the incoherence into which all of these strategies have fallen, causing them to fail to tackle sophisticated modern-day online scam mastery. Three major areas of focus for the novel strategy include improved coordination across government departments, tighter partnerships with relevant industries, such as banking and telecommunications, and international collaboration to address the global nature of cyber fraud.
At the core of the plan will be the creation of an industry reference group comprising stakeholders from banking, telecommunications, and digital platforms. This group will also investigate broad measures to mitigate losses from scams. It will cite international instances, like Australia, which has achieved great strides in reducing investment scam losses through strategic initiatives.
Some of the salient features of this strategy will be the establishment of a centralized reporting and tracking system for scams, improvement in cross-agency information sharing, and encouraging digital platforms to adopt voluntary industry codes. It will be adopted in financial institutions by mid-2025 but will allow a consumer to verify a recipient’s account details before transferring funds.
A small business benefits from measures taken to ensure increased safety in online transactions, such as going for the New Zealand Business Number (NZBN) as a “‘trust anchor.” With the confirmation of payee system, bank account names will be added to the NZBN register of account numbers soon.
Recent statistics indicate that New Zealanders have lost at least $200 million to scams within the last year. This is an increase of about 15 per cent when compared with the preceding year which has made the case even more urgent. The actual loss amount is likely underestimated since only one out of five scams are reported.
An impressive 333,000 scam texts were referred to the Department of Internal Affairs during the January-September 2023 period; reports indicated that scamming activities were most prevalent in areas of Nigeria and Southeast Asia. Research shows that Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp are some of the commonly abused platforms by scammers, as reported by the Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA). The aforementioned strategy aims at the long-term restoration of integrity in New Zealand’s digital economy concerning online scams: hard-hitting problems will be approached to reduce their occurrence. Following an April 2025 report on more prevention measures, the government aims for a comprehensive assault on the scam ecosystem while providing protection to both consumers and businesses against escalating threats.
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