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20 December 2004

News Release

Fraudsters approach many Bay of Plenty People - survey results

A significant percentage of people in the Western Bay of Plenty may have had personal experience of investment fraud, according to a survey by the Securities Commission. Of 200 people surveyed, 25% said they had personal experience of fraud.

The main types of fraud respondents identified were email scams and cold calls from overseas with offers of cheap shares.

"This result confirms our fears that the reports we hear of overseas broker frauds are just the tip of the iceberg", Commission Chairman Jane Diplock says. "We again warn people to hang up on these callers."

Many of the other experiences are likely to be Nigerian-type letters and lottery scams which continue to plague New Zealanders, and which should be ignored and destroyed.

The Securities Commission and the Serious Fraud Office carried out a "Protect Yourself From Fraud" campaign in the Western Bay of Plenty during October and November.

On the positive side the people surveyed did recall messages from the campaign. "Get independent advice" and "Promises of spectacular returns result in spectacular losses" were the most remembered messages.

"This convinces us that we are on the right track to reach people with useful information that can help them avoid becoming victims of fraud," Jane Diplock says. "The Bay of Plenty campaign was a pilot which we can adapt for other parts of the country."

The campaign featured many speaking engagements to community groups as well as news reports and advertising.

The McNamara Mackintosh post-campaign survey questioned 100 people who had attended a presentation and 200 people from the general public who had not been to a presentation but who could recall publicity from the campaign.

Results show 67% of the respondents from the first group, and 25% of respondents in the general public group, had personal experience of investment fraud.

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Contact: Catherine Chapman phone 04 471 7659