Scott Simpson: Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister says digital scams are down, but not out

The Department of Internal Affairs' Digital Messaging Transparency Report shows reports of text scams fell by 62 percent between 2023 and 2024. 

It seized almost 400 thousand dollars' worth of scam equipment last year. 

Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Scott Simpson told Andrew Dickens that people can now report text scams with a single click. 

He says there have already been 665 thousand of those reports so far this year. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
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Speaker 2 (00:16):
The Ministry of Internal Affairs is reporting a significant drop
in the number of people being scammed via text messages
last year. The Digital Messaging Transparency Report saw sixty two
percent fewer scams reported in twenty four compared to twenty
twenty three. So I'm joined now by the Minister of
Commerce and Consumer Affairs. Is Holiday Morning, Scott Simpson MP,
Good morning to you.

Speaker 3 (00:37):
Good morning, heyby Marta Riki to you, Andrew, thank you.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Does the sixty two percent drop in reports mean an
overall drop in people actually being scammed or are we
just not reporting so much.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
No, we're reporting things differently, Andrew. But there are still
an awful lot of scams around. Scams are a purge
on our society, a scourge on our society actually, and
we need to do a whole lot more, both as
individuals but also across the what's referred to as the
scams ecosystem. So the facilitators of scams are complex, they

(01:13):
are intelligent, they're well resourced, and increasingly they are international.
So one of the great things that's happened is that
we now have one click reporting of scams. So I
don't know about you, Andrew, but I had one just
the other day that came on my Apple iPhone and
it said, Hi, Mum, I've just got a new phone.

(01:34):
Please click this link on WhatsApp and do to link
up with me. Now, I knew that was a scam
because I'm not a mum, so I just hit the
I just hit the report and delete button and that's done.
So there have been six hundred and sixty five thousand
of those one click reports this year so far. So

(01:58):
it's not that there is a reduction in the number
of scams. They're out there, they're working hard, they're ready
to attack us as best they can, and we need
to be alert and ready to stop them.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
Go on, you, Scott, stay aware, stay alert, and don't
click on stuff. It's fair to say. And I thank
you so much for your time this holiday weekend.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
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