A scam is any email, link within an email, phone call or text that asks you to disclose any of your personal or banking information. Scammers aim to trick you into paying them money or giving them your personal information. They send out fraudulent emails to thousands of customers every day, usually promising things such as tax refunds.
Spotting scams
Here are some of the tell-tale signs that an email or a phone call may be a scam. It may:
- be badly worded or formatted
- have typos or spaces in words
- have a faked “from email address”. Check that it ends in “ird.govt.nz”
- have a faked “IRD website address”. Check that the URL ends in “ird.govt.nz”
Some of the phrases or terms scammers are using but we don’t use are:
| Dear citizen | Department of Taxes |
| Please pay within x days otherwise you will receive a fine | NZ Govt Tax Refund |
| Fiscal activity | IRD Customer Portal |
| NZD (after the dollar figure) | IRD Revenue portal |
| Excess payment | This the Police, you owe money to Inland Revenue |
| Our department | If you don’t pay, you will be arrested |
| Links to the Post Office website |