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NEW ZEALAND
Low source / High target
FRAUD TYPES
Investment scam victim, romance scam victim
KEY FACTS
Small market, high digital adoption, growing fraud losses.
REPORT FRAUD IN NEW ZEALAND1▸
No agency for New Zealand in our directory yet.
See all countries we cover ▸
Search the Report Fraud directory.
BORN HERE▸
Nobody in our case files was born in New Zealand yet.
OPERATED HERE▸
Nobody in our case files is documented as operating from New Zealand yet.
KNOWN FOR▸
THE PICTURE▸
New Zealanders are mainly targeted by offshore scammers through investment, romance and bank-impersonation scams. Scams and fraud became the most commonly reported incident category to the National Cyber Security Centre in late 2024, and reported direct financial losses to NCSC reached NZ$25.7 million for 2024 (NCSC, 2025). The country's largest home-grown frauds came from the finance-company and investment collapses after 2007, including Bridgecorp and Ross Asset Management, whose leaders were jailed. The Serious Fraud Office, Financial Markets Authority, Police and NCSC share enforcement.
TOP FRAUDSTERS FROM HERE3▸
Rod Petricevic CONVICTEDREPORT PENDING
NZ$467M (owed to about 14,500 investors) · 2006–2007
Bridgecorp managing director found guilty of making untrue statements in investment prospectuses; jailed for six and a half years.
SOURCE: Wikipedia summary of High Court ruling, April 2012
David Ross PLEADED GUILTYREPORT PENDING
NZ$450M (fictitious portfolio values reported to investors) · 1990s–2012
Ran Ross Asset Management as a Ponzi scheme, reporting fictitious investment holdings to clients; sentenced to 10 years 10 months.
SOURCE: Serious Fraud Office / FMA, Nov 2013
Joanne Harrison PLEADED GUILTYREPORT PENDING
NZ$726,000 (stolen from the ministry) · 2012–2016
Ministry of Transport manager who made false invoices to divert public money to herself; sentenced to 3 years 7 months.
SOURCE: Serious Fraud Office, Feb 2017
FRAUD BY CATEGORY▸
No official body here publishes a breakdown of fraud by type, so we show none rather than guess.
KEY NUMBERS▸
NZ$25.7M Direct financial loss reported to NCSC in 2024 (National Cyber Security Centre, Q4 2024 Cyber Security Insights)
NZ$6.8M Direct financial loss reported to NCSC in Q4 2024 (+24% q/q) (National Cyber Security Centre, 2025)
506 Scams and fraud incidents reported to NCSC in Q4 2024, the top category (National Cyber Security Centre, 2025)
WHO FIGHTS IT▸
Serious Fraud Office prosecutes large and complex fraud; the Financial Markets Authority handles investment misconduct.
National Cyber Security Centre (merged with CERT NZ in 2024) collects scam and cyber incident reports.
NZ Police and banks run anti-scam measures, including bank-led scam-prevention initiatives.
SOURCES▸
National Cyber Security Centre, Cyber Security Insights Q3–Q4 2024
interest.co.nz, 2025
Wikipedia, Bridgecorp
Serious Fraud Office
Case lists and figures compiled September 2026 from court records, regulators and major press; statuses change. Series reports above are fact-checked case files.