A significant move in the struggle to counter scams and recover victims' money has occurred, as Netsafe announced a partnership with CYBERA, providing New Zealanders with access to CYBERA's fraud recovery services. The New Zealand-based firms, Dolla and Akahu, are also part of the commercial alliance encompassing the banking, crypto, and telecom sectors.
Brent Carey, CEO of Netsafe, underscored this crucial move in tackling scams and providing individuals with the opportunity to reclaim their finances. "In recent months we have seen further examples of people from across New Zealand become victims of scams. As part of the Netsafe partnership we announced in January this year, New Zealanders can now use CYBERA to help them recover their money from international banks and crypto," Carey said.
The proactive service is designed for any scam victim who contacts Netsafe NZ to report a money or crypto loss that they have been unable to recover. CYBERA's service is offered to them as a path to regain their lost money. This service, effective from the start of the month, is free apart from a small charge for recovering cryptocurrency lost in scams.
“Below this new chapter, signifies a major landmark in our stand against the scam. Collaborating with these bodies, we aim to capitalise on our communal strengths to deliver novel and robust consumer services, fraud recovery, and scam prevention strategies, hence, to assist the sectors that are frequently the target of fraudsters," said Carey.
Jacob Bollag, Head of APAC Partners for CYBERA, indicated that the company has a demonstrated history of tracing funds for victims of scams in a variety of other markets. “Under this new partnership with Netsafe, we look forward to doing the same for those New Zealanders who are unfortunately coping with this issue as well,” Bollag stated.
CYBERA excels in providing support and intelligence sharing for fraud money recovery, involving local and global banks and crypto exchanges. Dolla offers advanced scam SMS filtering and blocking technologies, while Akahu is the first provider to offer a 'confirmation of payee' service in New Zealand.
The reality of online scams in the country is alarming; according to a Netsafe report, New Zealanders who reported being scammed incurred an aggregate economic loss of nearly $2 billion in 2023 alone.
In conclusion, Netsafe's alliance with Dolla, Akahu, and Australia's CYBERA is a considerable advancement in boosting fraud and scam victims' services across banking, crypto and telecommunications sectors. This collaboration unites Netsafe's expertise in scam incident response and consumer protection services with the specialist safety tech skills of CYBERA, Dolla, and Akahu.