A sophisticated scam targeting tradies and their customers, including one who lost $14,000, has prompted a warning from Consumer NZ.
Chief executive Sue Chetwin says the scammers seem to hack the builders' email accounts and change the bank account numbers on invoices before they're sent out.
Their customers then unwittingly pay the money, normally a large one-off lump sum, without noticing anything is wrong.
She says the mistake may only be noticed after the builder chases up a payment.
Consumer NZ has heard of two of its members who have fallen victim to the scam, one of which lost $14,000.
She contacted her bank, ANZ, two days after paying the bill but the money had already gone.
She is still waiting to hear back from police and ANZ about their respective investigations.
The second victim, who fell for a similar scam last year, was given a goodwill payment of $3300 -- half the amount lost -- by her bank Kiwibank.
Ms Chetwin says banks need to do more when they become aware of such scams.
She says anyone who thinks they could be a victim of a similar scam should contact police and their bank immediately.
Newshub.
