Hi ya'll,
I have just been advised of a new scam which has affected several people already and has been flagged by some NZ banks but not all as yet. A job advertised on both http://seek.co.nz/ and http://nzherald.co.nz/ for an 'Accounts Payable Officer' is what you should look out for.
People responding are hired to accept payments into their bank accounts from 'Paymate International' and are 'paid' by retaining 10% of all transactions *sound like a scam already?*.
They are then asked to withdraw the remaining amount and deposit it into another nominated account or transfer it via Western Union.
The scammers actually get the money from New Zealand via another ingenious play:
The scammers advertise vehicles for sale via many classifieds pages etc... and ask purchasers to pay for them via 'TradeMe's' SafeTrader mechanism into nominated New Zealand bank accounts. These accounts are the accounts of the people who applied for the scam 'Accounts Payable Officer' position. You can already see where this is going... The vehicle, of course, likely does not exist resulting in a loss to the purchaser and a very difficult time tracking down their cash again.
Keep the above in mind if you are looking for a job or thinking of buying a new car. A little common sense will go a long way.