Bank impersonation scams surge as people duped by new disguise

Author: Herald Reporters,
Publish Date: Wed, 2 Sep 2026, 1:08pm

Bank impersonation scams more than doubled last month, with fraudsters adopting a new disguise to dupe unsuspecting people.

Online safety organisation Netsafe said reports of scammers impersonating banks rose from 21 in July to 46 in August.

Of the August scam reports where people told Netsafe the scammer was pretending to be someone else, 34% involved a bank or financial institution.

That compared with just 20% between April and July.

Reports of scammers pretending to be a government agency fell sharply, from an average of 37 a month between April and July to 11 in August.

Netsafe chief online safety officer Sean Lyons said the figures suggest scammers may be changing the disguise they use, rather than the underlying tactics.

“The standout trend for August is scammers pretending to be banks. We’ve seen the number of these reports reach its highest level this year,” he said.

“Scammers know that people are more likely to engage when they believe they are dealing with an organisation they know and trust – and their bank is an obvious choice.”

Netsafe urged anyone who receives an unexpected call, text or email claiming to be from their bank to avoid responding directly.

“Hang up, delete the message and contact your bank yourself using a trusted number,” Lyons said.

“A genuine bank will never mind you taking that extra step to make sure you’re speaking to them.”

Netsafe said the figures represent reports made to its organisation and do not count all scams in New Zealand. It said month-to-month movements should be treated as indicative.

“Scammers constantly adapt their approach. The best defence is to slow down, question unexpected contact and verify it independently before taking any action,” Lyons said.

“If a message or phone call is supposedly from your bank, you don’t need to prove anything to the person contacting you. End the conversation and make the call yourself.”