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We’re pleased to report another success in our fight against spam!

Over two years we received approximately 500 spam complaints about the Auckland-based marketing company, Image Marketing Group (IMG).

IMG sent thousands of txt and email spam messages to New Zealanders, and even sold a database of email addresses to a third party.

Thanks to complaints by members of the public, we were able to take a civil case against IMG. On 10 February 2014, the High Court in Auckland imposed a hefty $120,000 fine on IMG. As part of a pre-trial settlement, IMG admitted breaching anti-spam law (the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act). The penalty imposed was recommended to the High Court by both the Department of Internal Affairs and IMG.

The marketing company also agreed to stop sending spam to New Zealand electronic addresses.

It is a clear win for consumers who are sick and tired of receiving unwanted email or txt messages. Spammers waste your time and can be costly to New Zealand businesses.

Results of our investigation into IMG

• IMG sent 44,824 spam messages to mobile phones operated by Vodafone New Zealand and Telecom New Zealand between 27 February 2009 and 26 March 2009
   
• IMG sent or caused to be sent 519,545 emails to email users in New Zealand between 14 December 2009 and 15 December 2009
   
• IMG ran at least 21 email advertising campaigns between 16 March 2010 and 9 December 2010
   
• IMG sold a database of about 50,000 email addresses to a third party.

Help us stop spam by reporting it

Use our reporting services to help us root out the companies and individuals who send spam:

• Complain About Email Spam
   
• Complain About TXT Spam
   
• Complain About Fax Spam

Read the judgement and the Department's press release.

We’ve entered into a public private partnership and signed up to an international reporting service that will make it easier to track spammers and fraudsters breaching New Zealand’s anti-spam law.

The GSMA Spam Reporting Service (SRS), from messaging security software provider Cloudmark, allows us to work closely with New Zealand mobile operators to analyse txt spam.

It also allows us to share intelligence about txt spam with telecommunications service providers as well other regulatory agencies and private authorities around the world.

We elected to use this global service as a tool to combat txt spam while maintaining our free 7726 short code reporting service.

The service will enable us to aggregate and analyse the complaints we receive. It gives us correlated reports on global patterns and trends in txt spam threats, originating both within and outside New Zealand networks.

By reporting problems back to a global collection, aggregation and reporting service the Electronic Messaging Compliance Unit at Internal Affairs will be better placed to defend consumers against falling victim to spam.

It was great to hear that four of the largest mobile phone companies in the United Kingdom also signed up to the SRS this month. Like us, the UK Information Commissioner’s Office will now be able to view real-time information about spam. More information on the BBC website.

Many people are continuing to receive scam-related spam messages to their email inbox or mobile phone account.

These messages tempt you with offers of money (e.g. you have won a lottery you never entered), requests for money (e.g. someone is stuck overseas or has a relative in hospital), or propose money trafficking services (e.g. a job is offered to “secret shop” around money transfer outlets).

The messages are full of deceit and are out-right fraudulent; they are a vehicle to take money from innocent victims. As such, we would like recipients of such messages to report them to us.

While there are certain investigative restrictions surrounding these messages, they do meet the definition of “commercial electronic message” under the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act. As per section 6(a)(ii) of Act, which provides the definition, the messages "assists or enables a person to obtain dishonestly a financial advantage or gain from another person".

By meeting the definition, the messages are subject to breaches of the Act. We can provide information to the appropriate overseas agency (if relevant) and publicise them online.

Please forward these types of messages to scam@reportspam.co.nz.

If someone has lost money through a scam (i.e. fraud was committed) they should file a complaint with their local Police station.

Further advice about scams and fraud awareness is on our website.