In the first quarter of this year, cybercrime rose 12% and financial losses were up 66% to almost $6 million.
Victims rarely get justice. The Cyber Security Insights report 2022 said that on average Kiwis lost $4.5 million each quarter last year and a third of those victims were small businesses.
The scams are increasingly sophisticated, and cybercriminals have become very good at hacking into people’s emails and changing account details so that funds get paid into the wrong accounts.
Being vigilant is vital.
Here at Aspiring Law, we will always call you to verify and confirm the accounts details you have sent us to make sure they are correct before paying any funds into your account, and we ask you to do the same if you’re paying money to us.
This is what we are currently doing to help protect you.
- Our trust account details are now pre-loaded as an ANZ registered payee so you can search the trust account details on any of the banks’ online payment functions to make sure you have the correct account number.
- On the information sheet we send you, we will remind you to call us if you are paying us any money to ensure the details are correct before you make the payment.