‘Scam season is here’: Pacific families warned as new series reveals most common cons

Summer is officially underway. This year's PMN summer calendar has something for everyone - from sports, art, music, faith, and food to families and friends enjoying a fun day out and creating lasting memories.

When summer hits in Aotearoa, Pacific families step into one of the busiest and most vulnerable times of the year.

Between last-minute gifts, travel plans to the islands, church break-ups, and family group chats buzzing with holiday deals, scammers know exactly how to sneak in.

And they do. CERT NZ’s latest quarterly data shows New Zealanders lose millions of dollars every year to online scams, with December consistently ranking as one of the highest-risk months.

Last Christmas, CERT NZ reported a sharp rise in fake parcel delivery texts, phishing links, and fraudulent online stores, noting that scammers rely heavily on “urgency and distraction”.

Netsafe Aotearoa echoes that warning, saying holiday scams are becoming “more sophisticated, more personalised and harder to spot”, particularly when cybercriminals imitate well-known delivery companies or set up convincing fake online shops.

This year, those scams are rising fast. Avast’s threat researchers found that fake online shopping site attacks spiked more than 70 per cent last Christmas, with over 60,000 scam attempts blocked across Aotearoa during the 2024 holiday period.

Package-delivery scams, those urgent “Your parcel is waiting” texts, remain among the most common.

To help people spot these tricks before they spoil the festivities, Avast has launched a short, animated YouTube countdown series called “The Twelve Days of Scam-mas.” The one-minute episodes each focus on a real scam that hits hardest in December, from fake travel deals to phoney charity appeals.

To help people spot these tricks before they spoil the festivities, Avast has launched a short, animated YouTube countdown series called “The Twelve Days of Scam-mas". Photo/Supplied

Pacific families among hardest hit

Pacific families, who often juggle larger households, community obligations and seasonal remittances, are especially at risk.

Netsafe says scammers deliberately target cultural values such as generosity, trust and family responsibility, all heightened over the festive period.

Pacific tech educators say the key is normalising conversations about scams, just like we do with budgeting or travel safety.

Avast’s seventh episode, released on 8 December, focuses on those exact scams, highlighting how fraudsters use emotional stories to steal from well-meaning people.

In the series, the villain Deceivus, a cheeky bot who pops up in each episode, tries a new trick daily. One day, he’s running a fake online store. Next, he’s sending out bogus puppy-for-Christmas ads or pushing a fake “urgent parcel” link.

Experts say scammers rely on three holiday emotions: rush, trust and generosity.

“You’re rushing to finish work. You trust the text because your mum is also waiting for a parcel. You’re feeling generous,” Puni says. “Scammers know Pacific families are giving and community-driven. They use that against us.”

“The Twelve Days of Scam-mas” is running daily until 12 December on Avast’s YouTube channel, with episodes dropping at 11am NZT.

How to protect your family this summer

CERT NZ advises families to:

• Check the sender - most fake delivery texts come from random mobile numbers.

• Never click a link you didn’t expect.

• Go to the official website yourself - if a deal looks too good to be true.

• Talk about it in the family group chat. A single warning message can save hundreds of dollars.