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Four Asian languages have been added to the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) NZ website to protect Asian New Zealanders from being scammed.
The addition of the languages - Hindi, Punjabi, Korean and simplified Chinese - aims to educate the country's Asian communities about cyber safety.
"We are hoping to get our core messages about staying secure online by creating long strong and unique passwords and enabling 2-factor authentication on important accounts out among communities who would not otherwise get our messages," a CERT NZ spokesperson said.
CERT NZ received more than 400 reports of immigration phishing scams in November in which Chinese visa holders appeared to be targeted in the scams, following a surge in immigration figures last year.
According to CERT NZ, the scams began with an automated phone call that claimed the recipient had visa issues.
The call offered language options in English and Chinese. If English was selected, the call will be disconnected; if Chinese was selected, the prompt requested personal information and claimed the receiver needed to pay money to resolve outstanding visa issues.
The latest quarterly report from CERT NZ showed unauthorised access to accounts remained one of the organisation's top categories.
"Unauthorised money transfers cost New Zealanders over $250k," the spokesperson said. "These are only figures that are reported to us and the real numbers are much higher."
