Brent Carey: Netsafe Chief Executive on scam reports going up over the past year

A grim figure for New Zealand, with one in 10 Kiwis getting scammed in the last year.

Data shows one in three people were victims of any crime in the year to last October, on par with 2022 figures.

Just over 15 percent felt unsafe last year, a jump from 9.3 percent in 2018.

Netsafe Chief Executive Brent Carey says scam reports have risen 20 percent, and action is needed.

"And we're calling on the Government to create an anti-scam centre so that we can all get a handle on this growing international crime as well."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Ever, du for Z Island, the latest Crime and Victims
survey is out. It shows our confidence and trust and
police are still falling. It's revealed one hundred and eighty
five thousand kiwis experienced violent crime in the last year
and there's been a significant rise in crime in two
categories car thefts, but also online fraud. Brent Carry is
the CEO of net safe. Hey, Brent, Hey, Heather, Apparently

(00:22):
ten percent of us experienced fraud in the last year.
Is that number real?

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Yeah, one in ten and certainly we're getting twenty percent
increase in scam reports to netsafe, So it's a growing crime.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
I mean, when you say fraud, I'm imagining getting scammed
out of a whole bunch of money. Is that it's
got to be more than That's got to be smaller
than that to be that many people.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Right, Well, I think that's right. I think people now
know how to spot a scam more and are reporting
it more, and we want them to report even those
low level scams because that's that is fraud.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
So what kind of fraud is caught up in that
big number.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
I think all types of deception crime, all types of advertising, scams,
impersonation scams, romance scams, all of those are caught up
in that reporting number.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
Given it's so big, and given it is increasing at
the rate that it is, are we taking it seriously enough?

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Well, we think that the government should do more here
and recording on the government's create an anti scam center
so that we can all get a handle on this
growing international crime as well, reports of sextortion, reports of
victim crime online. It's just growing as more and more

(01:40):
people are online shopping and online.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
Yeah, because at the moment it's been run out of
a division of the police, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
So there's a little number of agencies that all tackle fraud.
And what we want to do is coordinate and create
an anti scam center that's backed by government that can
take these types of reports and a handle on the trend.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
Brent, thank you very much.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
Appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
Brint, carry neit save CEO.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
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