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Speaker 2: The Ministry of Internal Affairs is reporting a significant drop
Speaker 2: in the number of people being scammed via text messages
Speaker 2: last year. The Digital Messaging Transparency Report saw sixty two
Speaker 2: percent fewer scams reported in twenty four compared to twenty
Speaker 2: twenty three. So I'm joined now by the Minister of
Speaker 2: Commerce and Consumer Affairs. Is Holiday Morning, Scott Simpson MP,
Speaker 2: Good morning to you.
Speaker 3: Good morning, heyby Marta Riki to you, Andrew, thank you.
Speaker 2: Does the sixty two percent drop in reports mean an
Speaker 2: overall drop in people actually being scammed or are we
Speaker 2: just not reporting so much.
Speaker 3: No, we're reporting things differently, Andrew. But there are still
Speaker 3: an awful lot of scams around. Scams are a purge
Speaker 3: on our society, a scourge on our society actually, and
Speaker 3: we need to do a whole lot more, both as
Speaker 3: individuals but also across the what's referred to as the
Speaker 3: scams ecosystem. So the facilitators of scams are complex, they
Speaker 3: are intelligent, they're well resourced, and increasingly they are international.
Speaker 3: So one of the great things that's happened is that
Speaker 3: we now have one click reporting of scams. So I
Speaker 3: don't know about you, Andrew, but I had one just
Speaker 3: the other day that came on my Apple iPhone and
Speaker 3: it said, Hi, Mum, I've just got a new phone.
Speaker 3: Please click this link on WhatsApp and do to link
Speaker 3: up with me. Now, I knew that was a scam
Speaker 3: because I'm not a mum, so I just hit the
Speaker 3: I just hit the report and delete button and that's done.
Speaker 3: So there have been six hundred and sixty five thousand
Speaker 3: of those one click reports this year so far. So
Speaker 3: it's not that there is a reduction in the number
Speaker 3: of scams. They're out there, they're working hard, they're ready
Speaker 3: to attack us as best they can, and we need
Speaker 3: to be alert and ready to stop them.
Speaker 2: Go on, you, Scott, stay aware, stay alert, and don't
Speaker 2: click on stuff. It's fair to say. And I thank
Speaker 2: you so much for your time this holiday weekend.
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