Don’t give to the Scamathon!

Every week, scammers take an average of $3.8 million from New Zealanders by preying on our human nature. 

For this year’s Cyber Smart Week, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) is calling for us to all stop 'donating' to The Scamathon (external link)and to protect ourselves online. 

New Zealanders lose $22,708 every hour to scams and other online incidents (average numbers based on a survey of banks in 2023). The losses range from people losing their entire savings or small businesses losing their investments, to individuals losing $100 to a social media scammer. 

The NCSC's Threat and Incident Response team lead, Tom Roberts, emphasises that every loss, no matter the size, has a huge impact on someone. 

"The Scamathon riffs of the idea of a Telethon, playing on all the different ways scammers appeal to us, to take advantage of us. It was even filmed out at Avalon studios, the home of the original Telethon." 

"While the message is conveyed through some dark humour, it highlights a hard truth that New Zealanders are giving away large amounts of money to online criminals. Most people think they wouldn’t fall for a scam, believing we’re too savvy, but the reality is scammers prey on our good nature, and through our digital devices can get to us at any time of the day or night." 

The current trend of reporting to NCSC shows this year New Zealand will potentially suffer the highest ever total losses.  

"Cyber Smart Week will come to an end, but The Scamathon doesn’t stop. We need to stay aware and keep working to block cyber criminals, and it’s something we can all do together," Roberts said. 

The NCSC is highlighting to individuals and small to medium organisations the importance of doing the simple things to stop scammers, including using strong passwords and turning on two-factor authentication (2FA). 

Research shows that 43% of New Zealanders use the same password across various accounts, 30% admit they don't use strong passwords, and 32% don't use 2FA. 

"It’s important to get the basics right. A long, strong and, importantly, unique password is going to stop a lot of cybercrime. Add in 2FA, and you're a long way to keeping scammers out of your online accounts. These are crucial steps we all need to get right." 

The Own Your Online website has all the information you need to do learn how to make stronger passwords and guides for turning on 2FA for your bank and other important accounts. 

The Scamathon content will update each day across the duration of Cyber Smart Week, showing in real time just how much scammers are taking from New Zealanders.