People looking to emigrate to New Zealand are being urged to make sure they visit the correct government website when sourcing information.
Immigration New Zealand (INZ) is warning customers to take special care after being made aware that a fake, scam website, which closely duplicates its own has been duping people worldwide.
The website appears to be a direct copy of the home page of the official INZ website, with a slight change in the domain name.
Some consumers have received an email appearing to be from a trusted source inviting them to click on a link to the fake website where they are then asked to enter personal details into a form as part of a phishing scam.
Scammers use phishing scams to trick people into handing over personal information such as personal banking details, IRD numbers, social media passwords or, in this case, passport details which can be very valuable to fraudsters.
The website and the forms can look very convincing. The real website has the following link –www.immigration.govt.nz – whereas the scam website replaces a full stop with a dash.
INZ is investigating steps it can take to have the site removed.
Meanwhile, INZ has also been notified of an increase in scam phone calls to mainly Indian nationals living in New Zealand. These callers tell the person that there has been a problem with their visa or arrival card information and demand that they pay money into a Western Union account or face serious consequences, such as deportation.