Types of scams and fraud

Anyone can fall victim to a scam. Scammers target people of any gender or age, and it doesn’t matter how much money you have. It’s important to stay up to date with the types of scams.

Know what's out there

It’s important to know about different types of scams and fraud, so you can keep yourself safe. Here are some common examples:

Business Email Compromise/Invoice Scams

You receive an invoice for a product or service that you haven’t ordered or received. Or a business’s email is hacked to send invoices with a different account included for payment.
 

Fake Charities

Fake charity scams are designed to exploit people's generosity by posing as legitimate charitable organizations.

Fake offers of employment

Fraudsters pose as legitimate employers to exploit job seekers. They promise a high wage or a guaranteed path to fast money for little effort.

Investment scams

An investment scam aims to trick you into investing in a fake business opportunity or financial product. Scammers usually promise high or fast returns, low risk, and exclusive insider information.

Romance Scams

They often move quickly to build a sense of intimacy and connection. After a period of relationship-building, the scammer will create a situation that demands urgent financial assistance. They often use guilt or emotional manipulation to pressure you into giving more.

Unexpected get rich quick schemes

Unexpected money or inheritance scams are often too good to be true. These scammers know that deep down, many of us believe we deserve good things, and they use this to exploit our trust in good fortune, leaving us vulnerable to theft.

Other examples you may come across, and should familiarise yourself with, include:

• Catch the Hackers Scam
• Government grant scams
• Lottery scams
• Outstanding debt scams
• Phone scams
• Tech support/remote access phone
• Threat and extortion scams

Spot the red flags

Fraud comes in many forms, but there are some common signs you can look out for to help you recognise when you’re the target of something suspicious:

• Have you physically (rather than just virtually/online) met the person you’re sending funds to?
• Have you been asked to download software to access your computer or mobile devices remotely?
• Have you been asked to receive and send funds on behalf of a third party?
• Have you received a phone call where a demand was made to send money?
• Are you being asked for an excessive amount of personal information, or information the caller should already know?
• Are you being told that you must act urgently or to keep things confidential?

Scammers often use payment methods that can’t be traced, such as pre-loaded debit cards, gift cards, Bitcoin, iTunes cards or money transfer systems. They may ask you to transfer funds to local or offshore accounts to help with an investigation or to ‘catch the hackers/scammers’.

Remember, ANZ will never:

• ask you for your banking PINs, passwords or security questions answers
• send you a link to log on to ANZ Internet Banking - always type the URL (anz.com/cookislands) into your browser
• ask you to download any software onto your devices
• ask you to give us remote access to your devices.