Age Concern New Zealand, in partnership with ANZ, has brought back popular ‘80s cop drama ‘CHiPs’ and its star Erik Estrada to encourage all Kiwis to be ‘on patrol’ when it comes to scams.
Although stats from a recent ANZ research survey* reveal that 69% of Kiwis aged over 65 are confident or very confident when it comes to spotting or avoiding scams, Age Concern and ANZ want to remind people to that scams and scammer tactics are constantly evolving to target Kiwis.
To remind them of this, Age Concern is bringing back CHiPs to tell people they have the right to hang-up, say no, and reject calls, texts and emails from people they don’t know.
Erik Estrada, popularly known as Ponch, was a mainstay on Kiwi TV screens for his portrayal of a California Highway Patrol motorcycle cop. It’s this familiarity that Age Concern and ANZ hope will encourage Kiwis to take notice of the types of scams currently out there and what they can do to avoid them.
ANZ has supported Age Concern to deliver digital literacy programmes across communities to increase confidence online, and now, with bringing back CHiPs, there is a scam awareness training guide, scam academy website, and toolkits for Age Concern centres. The guides cover how to avoid being scammed in the first place by encouraging people to be confident, get over their fear of coming across as rude and by learning the essential behaviours they need to stay scam safe.
“Scams and fraud are issues faced by everyone. We’re generally a warm, friendly, trusting, polite bunch, but this can be our downfall when it comes to being targeted by scammers. The research backs this up and shows that 75% of over 65s believe that in general older people in NZ are sometimes too kind for their own good,” Karen Billings-Jensen, CE of Age Concern New Zealand, said.
“For that reason, we’ve brought back one of the most popular TV stars of the ‘80s to encourage people to do what Ponch would do and adopt police-like behaviour when it comes to scams, and to generally just be more sceptical around calls, texts and emails.”
ANZ reported the basic type of scams, like phishing, cold call or impersonation scams, romance or investment scams, remain similar over time but what tends to change is how these scams show up in order to look legitimate.
“Banks play a really important role helping to protect our customers and helping keep banking services safe and secure. ANZ invests millions of dollars in doing so every year. We stop hundreds of scam attempts every day,” Alan Thomson, Head of Customer Protection at ANZ, said.
“Raising awareness and helping educate our customers is important part of this and it is encouraging to see people are confident when it comes to spotting scams. But the criminal networks targeting New Zealanders change their tactics often so we want people to stay on patrol.”
ANZ research shows 69% of over 65s are confident or very confident when it comes to spotting or avoiding scams.
“A continued focus on education so customers are better armed to spot scams alongside measures banks and the wider industry are investing in technology to help detect and prevent fraud and scams are really positive steps in the fight against scammers,” Thomson said.
ENDS.