Bay warned of Spark scam

Bay of Plenty Police are reminding the public of the dangers around fraudsters as a scam relating to Spark customers begins to circulate again.

Bay of Plenty Police issued the warning on social media today warning the public of fraudsters claiming to be from Spark contacting customers by phone with the aim of obtaining personal banking information.


Spark and Bay of Plenty Police are warning people of a scam circulating in the Bay of Plenty.

'These fraudsters appear to be extremely convincing and people in the Bay of Plenty are among those still being targeted,” reads the post.

'Please share this information as widely as you can and if you receive one of these calls hang up immediately, and do not under any circumstances hand over any information.”

Spark spokesperson Lucy Fullarton says the company understands a number of people have been contacted in the Bay of Plenty recently.

Spark was first made aware of the scam in September and it has recently re-appeared.

The fraudsters are reportedly telling customers that their Spark services are about to be cut off because of security issues and then asking the customers to go online to a fake Spark webpage.

Customers are also being asked to give remote access to their computer and provide personal banking information as part of this scam.

Lucy says these calls are not from Spark and it is strongly advised that anyone who receives one of these calls should hang up immediately.

It's very important the customers do not hand over any personal banking information and do not proceed to the fraudulent webpage. If anyone has passed on information, Spark advises them to contact their bank immediately.

Lucy says in light of this, Spark is bringing back their scam helpline (ring 123 and then press nine) which will take you through to an assistant who can help determine the legitimacy of the call.

'The most powerful thing is making sure people know this is going on,” she says.

'What we are saying to customers is we will never ring you out of the blue and ask for your bank account details. And we will certainly never ask you to give us your password or anything like that.

'If someone is calling you, saying they are from Spark and asking for those details then you should be suspicious.”

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