There is a warrant for your arrest!

If you are a migrant, you would know that any phone call from Immigration can trigger a stress reaction in our brains. Even though we may realise that it is a casual query and an indicator of a positive outcome, we can still feel stressed from it. So imagine when you receive a call from Immigration (supposedly) and the person on the other side of the line tells you that they have a “warrant for your arrest”! Isn’t that enough to make your heart stop?

This has been the nature of the scary phone calls that some people have received. Needless to say this is a scam and the police and Immigration NZ have been warning people of this from last year. We have previously written about this, but the reason we bring it up again is because we have now been able to talk to someone who was a victim of one of these phone calls recently. Fortunately for her, she is a highly educated professional in a career where she deals with a lot of people and therefore, she was articulate and did not lose her cool. Should you wish to hear a recording of this conversation, we have a sound file on our website. It does however make one wonder about the fear it would invoke in those not very educated or still new to the country and its culture and are vulnerable.

The phone call begins with the victim being told that there is a warrant out for them for failing to provide Immigration NZ with a mandatory form. As the conversation progresses, the scammer on the other side of the phone becomes more and more intimidating. The purpose of course is to make the victims pay amounts of money.

We encourage everyone to listen to the recording of this conversation on our website or Facebook page. The best way to equip yourself to handle such risks is to remain aware and vigilant.

The government’s consumer protection website has the following information on specifically this kind of scams. It says that Indian nationals living in New Zealand are being targeted by a new wave of scam phone calls claiming to be from Immigration New Zealand. The callers threaten deportation and demand payment to a Western Union account in India.

The callers fraudulently claim to be calling from Immigration New Zealand and tell the person that there has been a problem with the processing of their visa and/or arrival card information.

Often the caller has some details of the person they are speaking to such as name, date of birth, and/or address. The caller may also quote reference numbers, although these do not appear to match Immigration New Zealand client or application numbers.

The callers are quite persistent, aggressive, and sound authoritative. As the callers have personal details of the person they are speaking to, the recipient of the call often believes it is genuine.

The callers demand that the victims pay money into a Western Union account or face serious consequences, such as deportation.

Calls have been made using numbers showing as the Immigration Contact Centre (09 914 4100) and Crime Stoppers (0800 555 111), but with an extra zero at the beginning.

The scammers are using a technology known as caller ID spoofing that allows a legitimate phone number to appear when the call is actually being made from another number, quite possibly from outside of New Zealand.

This particular scam has been going on since around mid-2013 and appears to target only Indian nationals.

Immigration New Zealand first posted a warning about the scam on its website on October 20, 2013 and Consumer Affairs last posted a warning in August 2014.

To date, almost 300 Indian nationals have reported being called by the scammers with the dollar values involved typically ranging from $1,000 to $5,000.

Advice

Immigration New Zealand never requests money over the phone. No matter how important the caller may sound, do not pay.

Contact the New Zealand Police or report the call to Scamwatch.

Further advice can be found on the Immigration New Zealand and Consumer Affairs websites.

How to stay safe

You can protect yourself by following these simple rules:

• Get to know about the common types of scams and typical red flags you should be looking out for.

• If something doesn't seem right, be cautious, double-check the details first.

• Do not pay money to anyone you have never met.

• Look after your personal details in the same way you would your wallet and other possessions.

• Be aware of common scams. For example, banks, Immigration New Zealand, or Inland Revenue never e-mail, call, or SMS customers to ask for money to be sent using money transfer services. If you receive a request like that, it's a scam.

• If you have been targeted by a scam, report it straight away to Scamwatch, and help prevent others from becoming the next victim of a scam.

Find out more at www.consumer protection.govt.nz

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