Photo / Supplied
Scam emails can be hard to navigate. Especially when you don’t realise it’s a scam. With scam artists getting smarter and smarter, they can become tricky to spot.
This fake NZTA email scam has been making the rounds lately, and Kiwis could find themselves out of pocket if they fall for it.
The email says “don’t forget to renew your vehicle’s licence” before explaining how renewal can happen online.
There’s then a link that takes you to a website that looks very similar to the NZTA official website.
A Kiwi mother who received the email says “the scary thing is if no one knew to properly check the email or the web address they would 100% fall for this. The website it takes you too looks near identical to the official NZTA website.”
The bottom of the email signed “Nga Mihi” with the Waka Kotahi NZTA logo, as well as a disclaimer about why you may have received the email (which, as we know, is completely fake).
The use of the logo and disclaimer at the bottom of the email makes it look like it could be legitimate.
But here are the red flags:
1. The email address
This email has been sent from “norepl[email protected]global-kd.com”. It’s clearly not a legitimate email address.
2. Does the email mention your name?
An official email would typically address you personally. “Dear Maxene,” for example.
3. Does the body of the email include any links to external websites?
While it is normal for legitimate emails to send you links to their websites, if something seems fishy, don’t click the link.
You should never click a link if you suspect it might be a scam.
If it’s too late, and you’ve hit the link in panic (it happens), check the URL. Is the URL the official website? As you can see in this NZTA example, the URL is not the NZTA official website. Although it does look frighteningly similar.
Scam emails are extremely common these days. But if you do happen to come across one, make sure you report and delete it.
Keyword: Hundreds of Kiwis receive fake NZTA email scam, here are the red flags