Police are urging "extreme" vigilance after the re-emergence of an elaborate scam involving fake Chinese officials.
One Mandarin-speaking woman who lives in New Zealand was recently targeted and wanted to share her experience, so that others don't fall into the trap.
It was a day like any other for 'Ling', working from home in Auckland, when she was contacted by a so-called courier company in China.
"They said there was a parcel with some problems and I was the sender of it from China. I knew that was wrong - I'm not Chinese, I've never been to China," she told Newshub.
Ling was then transferred to a man claiming to be from Chinese police. She was sceptical, so the man offered to video chat.
"I did, and at this time he turns on his front-facing camera, I can see him in full police uniform, and he showed me his badge."
Ling was hooked, and things escalated.
"After we clarified that parcel was indeed not sent by me, he said: 'Before I let you go, I need to run your information through our database just in case your information has not been used by other scammers'. This is when it comes back with a positive match."
Ling was told her identity had been caught up in a human-trafficking and money-laundering scheme.
She was even sent fake documents warning she could be extradited for the investigation.
"I was so scared."
But after three days of turmoil, and too afraid to tell her family, Ling realised it was a scam.
"They said they needed to look into my account because this is to do with the money laundering case."
Newshub asked if she gave her bank account details away.
"No I didn't."
"How relieved do you feel?" Newshub asked.
"Oh, so relieved!"
Relieved, she says, because others have fallen into the trap.
Last month police investigating three reports of a 'Chinese officials' scam revealed two people had each lost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
And alarmingly, it goes back years. Warnings such as that displayed in the following image have been distributed around the world to try and prevent more people falling prey to the scammers.
A news item from Singapore in 2019 describes the exact same scam.
"The victim typically receives a call from someone claiming to be from a courier company," the news report said.
Police told Newshub unfortunately there are certain scams that do the rounds and re-emerge, so they're encouraging anyone who's approached by so-called 'law enforcement' based overseas to be extremely vigilant.
Because as Sean Lyons from Netsafe explains, the scam industry is thriving.
"It's still paying off, [and] it's still profitable. There are good methods to follow - it's easy for them to do."
So, the best tool we have to prevent others falling victim to these extortion scams is to spread the word.
