The Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency has issued an alert warning motorists about three separate scams being undertaken by accounts posing as Waka Kotahi.
The three scams come in the form of a vehicle registration renewal scam, a refund scam, and an overdue toll scam.
Waka Kotahi describes the registration scam as the most common. The scam involves victim parties being sent a link to a fake website by an account posing as Waka Kotahi.
“That website may ask you for your payment details and your driver licence details,” says Waka Kotahi.
The agency encourages those worried that they have received a scam email concerning registration to check to see if their registration expiry date features in the email.
“We always put your expiry date in our emails. If there’s no expiry date, or it doesn’t match your label, it’s likely to be a scam email,” says Waka Kotahi.
The refund owed scam works in a similar way, offering those who have received the email a link to a fake website.
The overdue toll scam also utilises links to fake websites. It also adds an attached invoice. Waka Kotahi says that its toll notices never include an attachment, so any email received regarding tolls that includes an attachment is fraudulent.
Waka Kotahi also warns that motorists should check the email suffix format of emails received.
Genuine emails will always come from nzta.govt.nz, enews.nzta.govt.nz, or reply.nzta.govt.nz. Fraudulent emails come from similar, but not identical, addresses. These include nzta.co.nz and nzta.qovt.nz.
“Unfortunately it’s just the latest example from some very persistent scammers – using both fake vehicle licensing and driver’s licence reminder emails,” a Waka Kotahi Spokesperson told Stuff.
“We’re working with Police, Cert NZ and Netsafe to combat the scammers, but they are persistent, and no sooner is one phoney website taken down than another appears.”
