Crypto scams in NZ: deepfake ads, fake police calls and where to report

Most crypto scams in NZ follow nine scripts that the FMA and Police have documented: deepfake ads of politicians, callers posing as Police, cash fed into crypto ATMs, group-chat clubs, romance cons, fake withdrawal fees, recovery offers, lookalike exchanges and P2P triangulation. If you’ve already paid, call your bank first, then Police on 105.

A good scam doesn’t feel like a scam. It feels like a news story, a phone call from an official, a friend’s investment tip or a helpful stranger who knows exactly what went wrong last time. The script is what gives it away.

What are the latest crypto scams in NZ? Nine scripts agencies have flagged

Deepfake trading ads, fake Police officers and cash-to-ATM impostors lead the recent NZ warnings. Each card below is a pattern that NZ agencies have warned about; the names and websites change, but the shape doesn’t.

FMA warning

Deepfake ads and fake news stories

Social media ads and fake articles show AI-generated NZ politicians or bank chief executives endorsing a trading platform. The platform is fake. In April 2026 the FMA named Winston Peters and the Kiwibank and Westpac CEOs among the faces used.

NZ Police

The fake police officer

A caller says they’re a detective and your ID was found on someone arrested. You’re then handed to a ‘crypto company representative’ who walks you to a fake site that collects your seed phrase. Police say losses have run into the millions.

Impostor

Cash into a crypto ATM

Someone posing as Police, IRD, your bank or tech support says your money is at risk and tells you to withdraw cash and deposit it at a crypto ATM, sending the Bitcoin to an address they supply.

Ponzi-style

The group-chat investment club

A WhatsApp or Telegram group full of ‘members’ posting profits, promoting a platform. The FMA’s TXEX warning describes a network of group chats and fake platforms working together.

Weeks to months

Romance and the long con

A new online friend or romantic interest gradually introduces a ‘crypto opportunity’, lets you withdraw a little early on to build trust, then encourages ever-larger deposits.

Exit stage

Pay a fee to release your funds

Your account on a platform shows big gains, but withdrawing needs a ‘tax’, ‘release fee’ or ‘verification deposit’ first. The FMA warns these balances are fake and so is the fee.

Second hit

The recovery scam

After a loss, someone offers to trace and recover your crypto for an upfront fee, sometimes claiming to be a lawyer, a regulator or an overseas authority. The FMA has issued more than one warning about these.

Fake domains

Lookalike exchanges

Sites borrowing a real name. The FMA warned about kiwi-ex.com and kiwicoinex.com, which have no connection to the former Kiwi-Coin exchange. Fake wallet and exchange logins also appear in search ads.

Peer-to-peer

P2P triangulation

On peer-to-peer platforms, a scammer ‘buys’ your crypto but pays with money stolen from a third victim. Your bank may later reverse or freeze the payment, leaving you short.

What the scammer says, and what the real organisation does

Why do scammers ask for crypto instead of a bank transfer?

A crypto payment can’t be called back once it’s confirmed, it can leave the country in minutes, and many victims don’t know how to check where it went. The same logic sends people to crypto ATMs: cash becomes an irreversible transfer in one step. How those machines work, and the DIA rules around them, are covered in our Bitcoin ATM guide for NZ.

How much do New Zealanders lose to scams each year?

About $23.8 million in direct losses was reported to the NCSC in the year to 30 June 2026, but survey estimates put total scam losses far higher. Here are the figures we could source, each with its date.

Reported figures are only part of the story, because many people never report. Netsafe and the Global Anti-Scam Alliance estimated New Zealand’s total scam losses at about $3 billion in 2025, up from $2.3 billion the year before, with an average loss of $3,352. Those are survey-based estimates, not counted losses.

Investment scams dominate. The 2024 edition of the same survey attributed 72% of losses to investment scams, including fake crypto, and Netsafe said in May 2026 that investment scams reported to it over the previous 12 months averaged $14,800 per victim. We couldn’t find a national figure for crypto losses specifically.

How to tell if someone is a crypto scammer: ten red flags

One red flag is enough to stop and check before sending anything. The first two on this list are never legitimate.

• Anyone asks for your seed phrase, private key or a photo of your recovery card. No genuine organisation ever does.
• An official wants you to move money “to keep it safe”. Police, IRD and banks never ask you to buy crypto, use a crypto ATM or move funds to a new wallet.
• Guaranteed or unusually steady returns, especially daily or weekly percentages.
• Pressure and secrecy: act now, don’t tell your bank, don’t tell your family.
• You can see a balance but can’t withdraw it without paying something first.
• A celebrity, politician or bank boss is endorsing it in an ad or “news” article. Real ones don’t.
• The platform isn’t on the FSPR or appears on the FMA warnings list.
• Someone you’ve never met in person is steering you towards an investment.
• You’re asked to install remote-access software “so we can help you set up”.
• A recovery service wants payment upfront.

Scammed? What to do in the first hour, with NZ numbers to call

Call your bank’s 24/7 scam line first, before you do anything else. Banks can sometimes stop a payment still in progress, and exchanges can sometimes freeze funds that haven’t left yet, so minutes count.

1. 01

   Call your bank now

   Use the number on the back of your card or the bank’s 24/7 scam line. Tell them it’s a scam, give the amounts and times, and ask them to stop or recall payments.

2. 02

   Stop all contact and payments

   Don’t pay any ‘release fee’, ‘tax’ or ‘recovery’ charge. Don’t argue with the scammer, and don’t install anything else they suggest.

3. 03

   Secure your accounts

   If you shared a seed phrase, move any remaining funds to a brand-new wallet from a clean device straight away. Change passwords on email and exchange accounts and remove any remote-access apps.

4. 04

   Contact the exchange you used

   If you bought crypto on a platform before sending it on, report the scam to its support team with transaction IDs. It may be able to flag the receiving address.

5. 05

   Save the evidence

   Screenshots of chats, ads, website addresses, wallet addresses, transaction IDs and bank statements. Police and your bank will need them.

6. 06

   Report it

   Police on 105 (online or phone) and the other agencies in the table below. Reporting helps even if the money isn’t recovered.

Keep this list by the phone

Where to report a crypto scam in NZ: Police, NCSC, Netsafe and the FMA

Report to Police on 105 for any loss, then to whichever agency matches the type of scam. Your bank comes before all of them if money left an account.

Will an NZ bank refund a crypto scam? What the NZ$500,000 scheme covers

Sometimes, if you paid from your bank to another NZ bank account and a bank failed its scam-prevention commitments. New Zealand Banking Association members adopted those commitments on 30 November 2025: confirmation of payee, warnings before risky payments, interventions on high-risk transactions, a 24/7 scam reporting channel and sharing information about scammer accounts.

Where a bank, or the receiving bank, fails those commitments, it may reimburse authorised-payment scam losses of up to NZ$500,000. The scheme covers consumers paying to a New Zealand bank account who took reasonable care.

Crypto payments sit mostly outside that protection:

• Cash put into a crypto ATM isn’t a bank payment, so the scheme shouldn’t apply.
• Payments to a legitimate crypto exchange, where you then bought crypto and sent it to a scammer, are a grey area. We found no published guidance or decision on how the code treats them.
• Card chargebacks often fail in these cases. Financial Services Complaints Ltd has published cases where a refund was refused because the crypto was delivered as purchased, including one where an exchange had shown adequate warnings before a $15,000 loss.

Exchanges themselves are not banks, and crypto held on one isn’t covered by bank deposit protection. Why that matters is explained in our guide to custodial and non-custodial storage.

How to check a crypto platform on the FSPR and FMA warnings list

Search the Financial Service Providers Register for the company’s legal name, then search the FMA warnings list for its brand and web address. Start with those two; the full routine has five steps:

1. Search the Financial Service Providers Register at fsp-register.companiesoffice.govt.nz for the company’s exact legal name, not just its brand. Note the registration status and the dispute resolution scheme listed.
2. Search the FMA warnings and alerts list for the platform name and website address. Try variations, because scam sites change domains often.
3. Check the web address character by character. Lookalikes swap a letter, add a hyphen or use a different ending.
4. Find out who actually holds your money and whether you can withdraw to your own wallet. A platform that won’t let you withdraw your Bitcoin is a warning sign on its own.
5. Read independent reviews, not testimonials on the platform’s own site or in its group chat.

FSPR registration is not a licence or an endorsement. It means the business has registered and, if it serves retail clients, should belong to a dispute resolution scheme. A missing registration is a red flag, but a present one doesn’t make a platform safe.

What the FMA, DIA and FSPR each do is set out in our guide to whether crypto is legal in NZ. The account settings that make you a harder target in the first place are in our seed phrase, 2FA and SIM-swap checklist.