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Almost A Fifth Of Kiwi Online Shoppers Have Been Scammed, New Research Reveals
Black Friday is nearly here and a spike in online shopping means more New Zealanders falling victim to scams.
The Domain Name Commission has released new research that shows just under a fifth of New Zealanders - at 18% - report they have been scammed shopping online. And a further 11% say they have almost been scammed.
Assistant Domain Name Commissioner, Isobel Egerton, says the research asked New Zealanders how much they are shopping online, how they are keeping themselves safe and how often they are being scammed.
"What I find most worrying is that, among those who have been scammed, 28% of people said they have been scammed 2-3 times," says Egerton.
More than half of online shoppers here in New Zealand are shopping online more than they were 12 months ago. This is not surprising due to COVID-19.
"With more of us shopping online more often, we need to know how to keep safe and how to spot a scam."
Nearly a quarter of New Zealanders - at 24% - are worried about whether the online store they are looking at is genuine. And there are things we are doing now to safeguard ourselves.
Over half of us are looking for a padlock on the website address that indicates a secure https website. The same amount of people are also checking the site for bad spelling and grammar.
40% of New Zealadners check to see if the website address is a .nz domain. And 61% say they are more likely to buy from a .nz website address.
"To keep the .nz online space trusted and secure, the Domain Name Commission identifies fake online stores, validates the owners' contact details and suspends .nz domain names that violate the rules. These checks result in fake .nz online stores being shut down.
"We’re running our annual ShopSafe NZ campaign right now. We give New Zealander's top tips to help them spot a .nz website that might be a scam.
"We also list New Zealand company scam alerts in one handy spot so you know what scams are in circulation," says Egerton.
The links below will take you to the research:
Infographic of the .nz online shopping insights
Full report of the .nz online shopping insights
Check out the Domain Name Commission’s ShopSafe NZ campaign for everything related to safe online shopping with .nz domains and websites.
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