Netsafe announced a series of anti-scam advancements this week, with a focus on both innovative mitigation strategies and strong international partnerships to enhance New Zealand’s scam control initiative network.
Netsafe is bringing back ReScam.org, a cutting-edge AI tool designed to waste scammers’ time so they can’t target their next victims.
Scams are a growing problem in New Zealand, and their costs to the economy are estimated to be NZD$2 billion annually, equating to 0.85 percent of NZ’s GDP in 2023.
This innovative technology leverages the latest AI measures to disrupt potential scams and educates users on the tactics used by cybercriminals in email scams.
By forwarding suspicious emails to me@rescam.org, the system identifies scams and begins a never-ending conversation, wasting scammers’ time.
With multiple personalities and an ever-growing vocabulary, there’s no way for scammers to know they’re talking to Netsafe’s specialist scam-baiting intelligence system.
Consumer’s Approach
Consumer NZ is launching a petition calling on the government to step in and force banks, digital platforms, and telcos to do more to stamp out scams.
Consumer research found that all New Zealanders are at risk of being scammed, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, income, or educational attainment.
“New Zealanders are not adequately protected against the growing threat posed by these invisible criminals who are constantly looking for new ways to part them from their hard-earned dollars,” said Jessica Walker, campaigns manager at Consumer.
“Scammers and scams have evolved to the point they pose a risk to everyone who uses mobile phones, email addresses, social media accounts or the internet in general.
“Many people recognise that scams are a significant problem, but no one is taking the lead and demanding action. There’s power in numbers, so we’re asking New Zealanders to get behind this cause and push the government to introduce greater scam protections,” said Walker.
“Anti-scam centres are being run by governments in Singapore and Australia, but the government here has left it to businesses to regulate themselves. It’s not enough,” said Walker.
Manaaki Tāngata Victim Support told Consumer that as scams are becoming increasingly sophisticated, it believes society’s response to fraud victims needs to evolve too.
“The impact of fraud can be life-changing for victims, with devastating financial, emotional, social and psychological consequences,” said Dr Petrina Hargrave, general manager for advocacy and strategy at Victim Support.
“Yet, New Zealand’s response to fraud victims lags behind our attitude towards other crime victims, including what fraud victims are entitled to under the Victims’ Rights Act.”
According to Hargrave, crime happens because of criminals, not because of victims.
A Game of Cat and Mouse
Netsafe’s CEO Brent Carey says that when Re:Scam was first developed back in 2017, the game of cat and mouse sent more than a million emails to scammers, wasting a total of more than 5 years of their time.
“As the rise of scam victims – and the total cost of their losses – persists in New Zealand, Netsafe continues to look for innovative ways to disrupt scammers, launching yet more products and services to prevent and support victims of scams,” he says.
Crucially, there is no government funding for incident response and victim remediation. Yet in recent research by Netsafe and the Global Anti-Scam Alliance, 53 percent of New Zealand respondents admitted to a significant emotional impact post-scam.
Unsurprisingly, only a fraction of scams and fraud are reported to law enforcement, and police resources are too stretched to prioritise cyber-crime unless it occurs within the context of syndicated organised crime. Only 15 percent of people who try to recover their funds lost to scams are successful.
The online safety not-for-profit organisation has rolled out new scam-busting tools and services every month of 2024 so far, following their publication State of Scams report at the end of 2023.
These included the Chorus-funded Get Set Up for Safety toolkit for Senior scam prevention, followed swiftly by the commercial alliances with Cybera, Dolla, and Akau. The partnerships spanning the banking, crypto, and telecommunications sectors will give victims more options for recovering their losses.
“New Zealand’s scam prevention and redress model needs the whole ecosystem to be mobilised to combat scams efficiently and effectively,” Netsafe CEO Brent Carey said.
Within the ecosystem Netsafe primarily focus on consumer protection, incident response and victim remediation.
“While Netsafe alone cannot bring about regulatory or legislative change, nor do we have the means to deliver banking system technological advancement, we do have 25 years’ experience in harm prevention education, and our award-winning online harms and scams helpline is a well-known and trusted clear
pathway for consumer reporting of scams. A pathway people trust because we are confidential, independent of both government and the institutions they are banking with.”
Netsafe has also become the latest member of the international not-for-profit Cyber Helpline, which builds communities to deploy tools, services, and programs that provide cybersecurity at a global scale.
“We are playing our part to help New Zealanders navigate the digital landscape safely and confidently,” said Brent Carey, CEO of Netsafe. These new initiatives underscore our commitment to innovation, collaboration, and proactive action against online scams.”
This is evidenced by Netsafe’s year-on-year growth in reports to its helpline, which processes around 15,000 scam reports a year from victims. Meanwhile, Netsafe is rolling out more scam-busting tools throughout 2024 and into 2025.