Concerns about elderly people being scammed, whether on-line, by phone or on the doorstep, have led Age Concern Flaxmere to develop a new programme to help prevent older people becoming victims of unscrupulous fraudsters.
In development at the moment, the programme will be rolled out later this year, first at Flaxmere and then other areas, and aims to give elderly people the skills to protect themselves against all known forms of scamming.
Age Concern Flaxmere manger Ani Carroll said this included things like ATM safety, on-line security, and safely using credit cards on-line.
"More awareness is needed," she said.
"We had a person who bought something over the internet using their credit card. It appeared to be a legitimate product from a legitimate company but within a very short time funds were being withdrawn from the account."
Another concern was safety at outdoor ATMs.
"Our people are very trusting. It's a generational thing, they don't expect people to take advantage. With ATMs it is about picking times when there are lots of people around, and not going alone."
Age Concern Flaxmere member Lesley Hurrie said she had a number of phone calls from people telling her there was something wrong with her computer asking her to turn it on and follow their instructions.
"A few years ago if it had not been for my daughter, I would have swallowed it hook, line and sinker.
"They sound like they know what they are talking about, and I was quite convinced, but when I got to my computer and turned it on I put the call on speakerphone. My daughter said not to do anything."
Mrs Hurrie said she had another call at 10.30pm recently along the same lines, but now when she saw long numbers show up on her phone id she did not answer the call.
The courses that Age Concern were going to run would be very valuable, she said.
"I do not normally think I would be easily sucked in but there could be people more gullible than me, so it's a brilliant idea."
This month Consumer Protection issued a warning about a recent new ploy where scammers pretended to be senior executives, targeting victims with offers of fake jobs in their New Zealand companies.
They made contact by email, or phone or placed a job ad on an employment website, and offered a well-paid job based solely on experience or following a basic phone interview.
If a job was accepted, people were asked to complete "visa application forms" and were directed to their nearest "New Zealand Embassy" - both of which were also fake, and part of the scammers' process to appear legitimate.
Victims were subsequently asked to pay "visa processing fees" and other application related costs, the money from which went directly to the scammer.
The Age Concern initiative was supported by Hastings District Council, which had donated $5766 from its Contestable Grants Fund towards the estimated cost of $7000 to develop the programme.