No one is immune to being targeted by scammers. People from all walks of life, backgrounds and ages are vulnerable, and everyone must be constantly alert for fraudulent contact, says Auckland business advisory firm McDonald Vague.

“With this week (13-19 November) being Fraud Awareness Week, we want to remind Aucklanders of the dangers of scams and the need to be vigilant. We all receive junk emails, enticing online advertisements, letters offering a private purchase of shares for a low price, phone calls from people purporting to be people who they are not, and so on,” explains Peri Finnigan, director of McDonald Vague.

Ms Finnigan says that her firm is focussing on telling its clients about the need to be careful about business and financial scams. These are the scams that encourage the private purchase of shares and/or property, participation in an investment scheme or a manged fund, investing in a particular business proposal or paying fraudulent invoices.

“These proposals and communications tend to look very credible and, on the surface, perfectly viable. But of course they’re all designed to steal your money. Tax scams are also prevalent where you’re contacted by someone, either online or on the phone, by someone saying they’re from the Inland Revenue or a tax specialist. The IRD will not contact you in this way, nor will any genuine tax specialist.”

McDonald Vague has sent its clients a checklist that will help avoid investing in scams. It includes links to the Financial Markets Authority’s website so clients can check they’re using a registered New Zealand broker or investor, a link to check scam alerts and so on. The firm is also sending these clients a list of ways to help keep themselves safe, and what to do if they think they’ve been scammed.

Ms Finnigan concludes, “As business advisors, we’re also available to help ascertain whether a business proposal is worth considering. The usual advice is, however, if the offer or return seems too good to be true, it probably is!”

McDonald Vague Ltd is a member of NZ CA Limited. NZ CA is an association of independent chartered accountants located throughout New Zealand. NZ CA’s mission is to support its 28 member firms improve their business delivery to their valued clients.

Keeping yourself safe

It’s important to keep yourself safe from scams online. These include:

• - Always keep your anti-virus software and your operating systems up-to-date
• - Ensure your passwords are a mixture of letters (upper and lower case), numerals and symbols, and we don’t mean a password such as ‘Abc123!’
• - Don’t share passwords with anyone, including typing your password into an email
• - If you receive an email from someone you don’t know or a business that sounds odd, delete it immediately
• - Don’t click on links or open any files sent to you if you don’t know the sender, and
• - Use your common sense; if an offer or deal seems to be too good to be true, it usually is.

More information can be found at www.nzca.com.