Victor Luca

I PURCHASED my first personal computer in 1988. At that time, the internet was a rudimentary affair and wasn’t very reliable.

Things improved from about 1997. I haven’t walked into a bank with any regularity since about the early 2000s as I have done most of my banking online. In all those years I have never been hacked or scammed, that I know of. I figure that my suspicious nature has probably saved me a few times. Or maybe I have just been lucky. One must, however, never drop one’s guard.

No matter how smart you think you are, you can fall victim to scammers. For instance, I have a university professor friend in Australia who had $70,000 go missing from her account in 2008. The bank eventually made her whole.

I have a bro that a couple of years ago had $4000 go missing from his account. His bank card never left his wallet. How it happened remains a mystery.

Another of the bros is an IT guru and he got sucked in and lost $600 using Trade Me because someone had hacked the vendor’s account. My bro runs an IT team of 30. So, it can happen to the best of us.

It is getting increasingly difficult to avoid being scammed on the internet which most of us are now connected to pretty much all the time. It is important to realise that everything you type into a keyboard of a PC, or keypad of a tablet or smart phone remains in the ether virtually forever.

As the internet evolves, so too does the sophistication of the scammers. Rapid developments in AI are making it hard to know what is real and what is false on the internet.

On Wednesday, October 16, a team from the ANZ bank comprising Shantelle Yates (branch manager), Liana Kirk (senior personal banker) and Pam Lang (senior service consultant) will come to talk to Grey Power about “Protecting yourself from fraud and scams”.

The kick-off will be at 10am and the venue will be the same as usual (Knox Presbyterian Church Hall on Domain Road), and as usual, all are welcome.

Topics covered will include:

• Why talk about fraud and scams?
• Common fraud and scams.
• How can you protect yourself?
• Where can you go for help?

The team will also provide some resources on the day to help keep your money safe.