Posted by: transparencynz | May 16, 2017

Corruption and fraud in New Zealand – no place for ” she’ll be right “

Many New Zealanders have not woken up to the fact that  we are but a  bunch of ignorant and trusting   villagers   in a global market place just waiting to be ripped off .

Not only is it  buyer beware but  every one of us has to  diligent as every transaction has potential for fraud  and when it happens you are on your own.

One such story hit the headlines this morning .   Had Jackie and Murray Marquet known the most basic due diligence techniques they would  never have lost a cent.

Most people  just don’t know where to start checking things out  and many like  the Marquet’s say ” the emails and documents they received from the fraudsters looked genuine”   surprisingly  that is how fraud works    . It has to be  good to be convincing.

In their particular case  however  a 5 minute  due  diligence would have  saved them $32,000.

These are the tell tale signs

  1. email addresses procurement@otago-ac.net   and  purchasing@otagoac-nz.org
  2. the next clues are from the Purchase  order  shown to the right 

bill to:  University of Otago Holding  Ltd

09 886 2809

accounts@otago-acc.net

NZ business number

this is what they should have done

1       09 886 2809  this is an Auckland number  the university is in Otago  .

 

2       Google  Otago university   note that the   URL is www.otago.ac.nz. phone number 03-479 7000

3.  Check the  who is  for  otago-ac.net , otagoac-nz.org and otago-acc.net

note that both are registered to  The USA  and were set up in  the not too recent past

respectively they are

Administrative Contact Information:

Name Carl Finocchiaro
Organization None
Address 9841 West 86th Place
City Arvada
State / Province Colorado
Important Dates
Expires On   2017-12-21
Registered On    2016-12-21
Updated On   2017-04-27
Organization None
Address 100 North Avenue
City Grand Junction
State / Province Colorado
Postal Code 81501
Country  US
Important Dates
Expires On 2018-02-06
Registered On 2017-02-06    Note this was only set up two days before the   order was sent  !
Updated On  2017-04-28
Name Bardot clothilde
Organization  None
Address  7431 Muirfield Road
City   Norfolk
State / Province   Virginia
Postal Code  23505
Important Dates
Expires On  2018-01-07
Registered On   2017-01-07
Updated On 2017-01-07
If this did not  make them suspicious then the order could have been easily confirmed by checking  with  the directors of the company .    a check with the directors  or sending an email to  the accounts section at  the Otago university and checking with them that this is a valid  purchase order .  Use the  on line email  address not the one you were given .
Prevention is  so very easy     the first thing that fraudsters tap in to   is greed  … goody a big sale    the second is  they get your trust  .
The first thing you  lose is your money  the second is the trust you had .
No point  going to the Police    they wont  do anything more than file the  complaint .
We may be the least corrupt country   but that is because  it is actually very difficult to report fraud and corruption. When the police turn  complaints like this away   the statistics  will reflect that  is  very little or no fraud .   That’s efficiency for you   – you cannot measure   anything that you do  not collect data for.
Don’t be Frauds next victim .. check it out   be Verisure

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