Cyber-crime unit to protect Kiwis

A new cyber-crime police unit has started work to protect New Zealanders from increasingly sophisticated online scammers. The latest case has left a South Island couple destitute after they gave more than $1 million to Nigerian fraudsters.

Every day thousands of Kiwis use the internet to bank and shop, exposing them to potential rip-offs. Police say one of the latest trends sees online shoppers targeted by scammers frustrated that internet banking customers have wised up to their techniques.

The new unit is called NC3, or National Cyber Crime Centre, and it is three weeks old. It is headed by Detective Sergeant John van den Heuvel and by Christmas will have four staff. It is part of the police national e-crime group and should be fully operational by the end of the year.

Its priorities are to:

Patrol the internet looking for cyber crime

Set up a single reporting point for cyber crime, possibly via the police website where people can report internet scams

Keep track of the frequency, variety and dollar amount people were being scammed for to get a fuller picture of cyber crime

Provide technical investigative skills to police around the country and liaise with international counterparts.

Van den Heuvel predicts government plans to boost broadband speed will see a spike in cyber crime around the country. "It's certainly a growth area overseas, where organised crime is usually behind the bigger scams."

The most common form of scam is phishing, in which a customer receives what looks like a legitimate email from their bank or an online payment system, seeking password details.

Scammers can also install a trojan virus on a computer which captures all keystrokes entered and can specifically identify passwords when users visit particular websites.

Wireless internet users who have not activated security options are also vulnerable as scammers will drive around with a detector to find open wireless slots in residential areas.

But anecdotal evidence suggests it is online shopping sites where alarmingly high numbers of people are being ripped off. Bill Crane, operations manager of the police electronic crime laboratory, told the Sunday Star-Times scammers are still after the same information they wanted from internet bankers – account or credit card information that enables them to access accounts.

NC3 is investigating the South Island case, in which the couple transferred more than $1m of their savings to a Nigerian scam in several deposits over the last few months.

Police say the couple responded to an email from a man who said he had access to oil stock investments but needed money to get to them.

The couple, who did not question his credentials, believed the man's story because he claimed to belong to their church.

"There was every possible indicator there that this was a scam but they simply didn't want to believe it," a police spokesman said. He described the couple as "very, very gullible".

"Police had a heck of a time convincing them they were the victims of a scam. It's unbelievable. In the end police had to send them a formal letter with very strong wording telling them what was going on."

After the couple made several deposits into an overseas bank account, they were sent a credit card by the man as a sweetener. It was declined and when the couple questioned the man about it he told them he needed more money to activate it. It was at that point the couple became suspicious and spoke to police.

The police inquiry has been under way for about two weeks, and while they are following leads in several Third-World countries, they expect to turn up only dead ends.

The couple are now relying on members of their church for financial support.