Nigeria is now in the South Pacific.

We have all heard about Nigerian scams, how scam operators, many based in Nigeria, rip off unsuspecting victims. It appears that another country now has also gained the unenviable reputation of “Nigerian scams”. That county is called New Zealand.

New Zealand is a small country highly dependent on its export and reputation, so you would expect it take good care of its international standing. Not quite, and it does show in the balance of trade and the future predicted demise.

Minister of Immigration Jonathan Coleman in a recent press release labeled New Zealand immigration a disaster that needed urgent attention after a damning report by Auditor General.

Urgent is not the word because the potential overseas students, skilled immigrants, tourists, business people and expat Kiwis have known that for years. New Zealand is already off the shortlist.

In a recent China government survey New Zealand does not figure at all among preferred destinations for overseas study (97% of countries) and no New Zealand university is mentioned among the top 100 preffered, but Australia is number two, after the USA. The resent published events where Asian students were thrown out because they became pregnant have just added to the impression that New Zealand is a country with state racism with an edge against Asians.

Tourism could be, and should be, a core industry in New Zealand. Unfortunately it is not, the New Zealand immigration has established a reputation of being a nearly impenetrable firewall against getting into the country, if you are Asian of course. Other nationalities are obviously treated differently, and the Asians know. Chinese are no longer traveling in the proverbial flock following a guide with a flag. The travel as individuals, just like Kiwis, but New Zealand has established a firm reputation of being off-limit for Chinese individual travellers.

Any tourist operator knows that tourists choose destination to 80% based on recommendations from other tourists. New Zealand’s reputation is not exactly good. The most simple scam is to establish a check out time of 10 in the morning, then only put that in some obscure sign or “terms”, and when the guests check out late, they are charged for an extra day. The international well accepted standard check out time is noon. Stories about guides taking tourists to expensive back street warehouses to buy Chinese made Kiwi souvenirs, preventing them from exploring on their own, or feeding them cheap Chinese food are well known, and it is done by Kiwis, not migrant Chinese as often is claimed in defense by New Zealand.

Immigration consultants are another well known scammer group. They are now required to be registered, but there is an easy way around it. They strike up an alliance with a person or group in China, that group recruit the applicants, email the data to New Zealand where the work is done as usual, then the application is sent back to China, and the “immigration consultant” is now in China and New Zealand law will not apply, but the unregistered immigration consultant in New Zealand can carry on business as usual. It is also an excellent way to avoid tax in New Zealand as fees are paid cash in China. Much of the money finds its way to overseas banks not reporting anything to IRD.

Here are a couple of examples how scammers are alleged and reported to operate.

A company called “NewJobz” and “Skills New Zealand” are repeatedly alleged to have taken an upfront fee to find immigrants job offers so they can get a visa. They take a sizable “membership fee”, and then nothing happens. They also claim to be an immigration consultant. Names that pop up repeatedly are “Stuart Leck”, “Stu Macann” and “Stu Macann and Associates Ltd”. What is said to be happening is that one company is closed down and the information passed on to another, and the new company say it has no obligations to honor commitments the first one made, financial or other, to “members” of the old company. It is just that all the companies have the same owner and operates from the same premises. Potential immigrants lost their up front fees. The money appears to have been “filtered” out as costs, pay and salaries to the owner and media reports claim that potential immigrants lost NZ$600,000. It has been reported to the Commerce Commission and the ministry, but no action.

Another alleged scammer is mail drop provider located in New Zealand. People from overseas and Kiwi expats need a mail address in New Zealand, even if they are traveling overseas. The owner is running a mail center, he sign clients up as “private users” for a smaller fee. Then find ways to "upgrade" them to more expensive options. It is also alleged that he regularly opens customers letters, register their forward address or senders address to find reasons to charge their credit card extra fees. If the customer is using chargeback, which is a feature to protect the credit card users against fraudulent charges, or refuse to pay, they receive threatening letters, and he has been know to retail letters as a “security” until they pay what he asks.

When people have challenged him on opening and reading their mail, he boldly claim that that it is his right under the postal act to open and inspect any postal item. Maybe it is just that the act did not foresee this kind of use of the rights. He also offers a service to have a "secret" address if you are running a business.

We have also seen reports that letters, bank information and bank cards have just disappeared. Another method is to offer a trial, then pretend not to have received the cancellation, and so keep running up fees and debt, or charge them to the customers credit card, until the hapless trial customer pays up.

The authorities seems to accept this behavior, the Commence Commission is apparently not acting on complaints, the courts are too expensive and residents overseas must of course take on the cost of traveling to New Zealand and pay expensive lawyers and even the law firms now agree that any dispute under NZ$70,000 is not worth taking to court.

Using the Disputes Tribunal is also impossible for anyone outside New Zealand, you must be present or the claim is thrown out. To travel maybe three times from Asia to New Zealand may cost in the vicinity of NZ$25,000, and it is not worth it when you are scammed out of a few hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

It is this sort op operator that over the years has given New Zealand a bad reputation, and lately the less flattening reputation of being “The Nigeria of the South pacific.”

Rick Harriss, Kiwi writer in Hong Kong.