Kiwis are losing up to $500 million annually to international scammers and the number of reported incidents has risen sharply this year.
Experts say the money is putting a dent in the New Zealand economy with many scams driven by organised crime groups and overseas cartels.
However, actual losses reported to authorities are believed to be just the tip of the iceberg because many victims are too ashamed to come forward to authorities or even tell family members they've been duped.
A Herald investigation has revealed new details about the level of scamming activity in this country, the growing cost to victims and the psychological harm inflicted by the criminals who perpetrate these scams from around the globe.
Cases include:
• A couple whose son stole $2.2 million from them and lost it all investing in binary options. Such scams are now being presented as cryptocurrency investments online.
• A father who chipped away $800,000 in an inheritance scam in the hope he would eventually inherit $2 million to help his children buy their own homes.
• An elderly woman tricked out of nearly $567,000 in a romance scam by a man she believed was her true love. He claimed he needed money to oversee the completion of a hospital in Ghana for a friend whose family had been killed in a car crash. The scam was only detected by the woman's broker when she tried to borrow $300,000 more to send overseas.
The number of complaints filed by Kiwi scamming victims to cybersecurity watchdog group CERT NZ has spiked during the first three months of this year to 506 - the highest number on record.