A “phony” interest rates comparison website may have been a front for harvesting New Zealanders’ personal details, the financial regulator says.
The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) warned on Friday that it believed the website “Compare Fixed Term Deposits” was collecting information to be used by criminals to sell fake investments.
The site claimed to offer consumers comparisons of all registered and regulated fixed-income investments in NZ, and find the highest rates, the FMA said in a press release.
But the website did not contain any comparison information, rather asking users to fill out a form with their personal details so a third party could contact them.
It urged consumers to “exercise extreme caution” with the site.
The regulator said it was encouraging people to come forward "with any similar experience".
FMA response and enforcement executive director Paul Gregory said the FMA strongly encouraged New Zealanders to only deal with locally-registered entities.
He said if someone was pushing consumers into an investment opportunity, people needed to step back and ask themselves why they were being offered the deal, whether it was legitimate, and not to be rushed into investing.
“Hit the pause button before sending or committing any of your money to people you cannot truly verify. Most often with scams like these, your money is transferred overseas and it is incredibly difficult for New Zealand authorities to get back.”
The FMA said it had received 154 complaints about investment scams and fraud and issued 40 public warnings about scams "and other non-compliant entities" from January to June 2023.
It said comparison sites were often presented in search results when people were searching for investment opportunities.
Phony sites would often be presented alongside legitimate comparison sites and appear because they are paid for, sponsored links, rather than genuine search results, it said.
15 Comments
ASB AA-Savings Plus - potential rate, no withdraw/qtr shows 5% in this rate page.
https://www.interest.co.nz/saving/bonus-savings-accounts
I don' t see it on ASB site?
Looks like 4.65% to me for combined base and full reward interest.
Even better, it's all right here in front of you.
https://www.interest.co.nz/saving/term-deposits-1-to-5-years
Dear FMA
Please stop telling me to exercise caution and, like all of our banks, unfairly expecting me to carry the entire burden of security.
For the love of god you have evidence it is phony and used by criminals....what more do you need to shut it down.
This story should read, "Another win for the FMA, sham website shut down to protect our citizens".
Try harder.
You would think right? How about a fund setup that all financial institutions pay into and as soon as a scam is registered with DIA or FMA then anyone scammed by it gets paid from the fund. Banks on the hook as the $ goes via their systems, and perhaps a $10 paid to everyone that reports a scam? Perhaps the organisation the scam is purported to be from should pay any loses incurred from such a scam...looking at you citibank, NZTA, nz post, IRD....and the list goes on...they have the resources to do something about it...its time for carrots and VERY big sticks
I use interest.co.nz. If I have an existing deposit I open up the page that refers to this. If you have say 50K + deposit to roll over, they normally give you a small increase on top of the published rate, but they blow a bit hot and cold with this depending on how keen they are to keep your money.
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