Jessica Walker: Consumer NZ campaign manager on the company launching a petition calling for banks to refund scam victims

Consumer NZ is calling on banks to refund people targeted by scams.

The watchdog launched a petition and campaign urging the Government and other agencies to better reduce harm for scam victims.

Campaign manager Jessica Walker says Governments in places like the UK, Australia, and Singapore have made moves to protect people.

"So what we're asking our Government is just to do the same - to offer New Zealanders the same protection so we are no longer at the mercy of these cyber criminals."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Killer duple see Ellen. Consumer New Zealand is launching a
petition calling for banks to reimburse scam victims. Now. They
think that unless the scam victim has been grossly negligent,
the bank should have a responsibility to pay back any
money that was nicked. Jessica Walker is the Communications of
campaigns manager at Consumer and with Us. Now, Hey Jessica, Hi, Hather,
how are you very well? Thank you, Jessica. I would

(00:20):
imagine that very very few scam victims would be considered
grossly negligent.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Yet no, no, I wouldn't agree with that at all.
So I think that scammers are being targeted by professional,
invisible criminals, and what they're doing is they're leading people
to believe that they are on a legitimate site or
they are being made an offer that is legitimate. And
so at the minute, our lucklis to protections in the
banking system makes us easy pray. And so that's why

(00:46):
we've launched this campaign today.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
Yeah. No, the reason I'm asking you that is because
we would be talking about reimbursing, reimbursing most scam victims, wouldn't.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
We Yes, it would be it would be most most
scam victims absolutely.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Yeah, is that reasonable?

Speaker 2 (00:59):
Yeah, So before we launched this campaign, we've looked around
to see what's being done in other countries. So we've
looked specifically at the UK, Australia and Singapore and what
we've seen there is that governments have taken a really
strong stance to protect their people. And so what we're
asking our government is just to do the same, to
offer New Zealand as the same protection so that we
are no longer at the mercy of these cyber criminals.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
But what would we do in an instance where a
scam victim genuinely believes that they are transferring money into
something that is completely legit, the bank tells them it's
not legit, don't do it, they are determined to do it.
Whose fault is that? Well, and it goes through right
because I'm an adult and if I want to see
money to a scam, I have the right to do that,
and then afterwards I'm angry. Whose fault is that?

Speaker 2 (01:47):
Well, that's a really good question. So, I mean it
depends all of these all of these circumstances obviously going
to be different. And if the bank can tell you
that it is a genuine scam and then you choose
to go ahead, then you because negligent. So if the
bank has used their intelligence to tell you that this
is a scammer and you still go ahead, then of
course that's on you. But most of the time that's

(02:07):
really not what's happening. These are innocent people being exploited
by professional criminals and at the minute, all the risk
is being carried by your average citizen. Nobody else is liable.
A'm saying that's not fair. Things We've got to change.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
Are you at all worried that this may tip into
kind of an uncomfortable situation where the banks get way
too up in your groul Because none of us loved
it when the banks were going through our receipts and
looking at what we was, you know, how much money
we were spending on KFC before before allowing us to
buy a house. And I just wonder if we might
be requiring the banks to get just a little too
into the weeds with us.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
I think what we need to do is we need
to look at what's happening elsewhere. So there's something called
so A real payment network which has been in existence
in the UK since two thousand and eight. Real time
payments orry. We don't have that here now, and that
doesn't just make payments faster, it makes them smarter. And
so that means that there's so much information that banks
can see that can help them to determine what's going on.

(03:02):
So everybody has that level of I guess, just clarity
that things are safe and fine. We don't have that.
So at the minute, it's all on risk, and the
risk is on us. And so we're saying that because
of the lack of investment in the banking infrastructure and systems,
we think that the banks need to step up and
provide these protections that currently exist elsewhere and not here.

(03:25):
So that's what's behind our campaign's launched today.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
No Fear Enough. They really need to do more. Jessica,
Thank you so much. Jessica Walker, consumer Communications and Campaigns Manager.
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