Visa holders in New Zealand are being contacted by a person pretending to be from Immigration New Zealand. They are demanding money to be sent to them, in order to maintain or correct their immigration status in New Zealand. This is a scam, Immigration New Zealand would never be calling you with such requests.
Callers are posing as INZ staff and demanding payment from people to avoid deportation for various reasons, including incorrectly completing an arrival card and a failed police check. The scammers are using a technology known as caller id spoofing scam that allows a legitimate phone number to appear when the call is actually being made from INZ number.
No matter how important the caller may sound, do not pay them and do not disclose your credit card details, report the call to the Police.
Immigration New Zealand would never make demands for money such as this over the phone.
How to recognise if the call is a scam
- The caller tells the person that there has been a problem with their visa or arrival card information.
- They demand they pay money into a Western Union account or face serious consequences, such as deportation.
- Often the caller have some details of the person they are speaking to such as their name, date of birth or address so the calls appear genuine.
- Their caller ID comes up with 09 914 4100 or 0508 558 855.