Miss-Delectable
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Deaf community targeted in online scam - Story - National - 3 News
A Whangarei man is warning members of the Deaf community to be aware of a scam which has robbed his friend of tens of thousands of dollars.
The online scam has solicited several million dollars worldwide, by asking people to invest and falsely promising them high returns.
Half of those who have been ripped off, are part of the Deaf community.
Gavin Boyner says he has spent months trying to convince his hearing impaired friend she was being ripped off.
She wants to remain anonymous, but is one of at least 14,000 people worldwide who have invested in a company called Impreia Invest IBC.
She invested about $20,000 – mostly borrowed from finance companies.
“it was over time, a fee was paid repeatedly. Apparently it was to cover insurance and security and the paper work – all these different fees which I thought were just excuses,” says Mr Boyner.
In a cunning ploy to gain the victim’s trust, the scammers copied Facebook profiles of the target’s friends – pretending they had invested in Imperia and made a profit of 1.2 percent per day on the investment.
The Securities and Exchange Commission in the US has charged the company with securities fraud and frozen its assets, but there has been difficulty tracking just who is behind the scam. They have used an anonymous browser to host the website, and fake business addresses in the Bahamas and Vanuatu.
The money was transferred through a complex loop of countries including New Zealand.
Rachel Noble from Deaf Aotearoa New Zealand says the internet has become hugely important as a means of communication to the Deaf and hearing impaired; they can’t access radio, TV without captions, or phones like most people do.
“I think the issue really is, how do we educate the community about these issues? A lot of hearing people talk about these issues, but we’re not exposed to these conversations,” she says.
Ms Noble knows of dozens who have been conned, and have no chance of getting their money back.
Deaf Aotearoa is encouraging people to share their experiences so it doesn’t happen to others.
A Whangarei man is warning members of the Deaf community to be aware of a scam which has robbed his friend of tens of thousands of dollars.
The online scam has solicited several million dollars worldwide, by asking people to invest and falsely promising them high returns.
Half of those who have been ripped off, are part of the Deaf community.
Gavin Boyner says he has spent months trying to convince his hearing impaired friend she was being ripped off.
She wants to remain anonymous, but is one of at least 14,000 people worldwide who have invested in a company called Impreia Invest IBC.
She invested about $20,000 – mostly borrowed from finance companies.
“it was over time, a fee was paid repeatedly. Apparently it was to cover insurance and security and the paper work – all these different fees which I thought were just excuses,” says Mr Boyner.
In a cunning ploy to gain the victim’s trust, the scammers copied Facebook profiles of the target’s friends – pretending they had invested in Imperia and made a profit of 1.2 percent per day on the investment.
The Securities and Exchange Commission in the US has charged the company with securities fraud and frozen its assets, but there has been difficulty tracking just who is behind the scam. They have used an anonymous browser to host the website, and fake business addresses in the Bahamas and Vanuatu.
The money was transferred through a complex loop of countries including New Zealand.
Rachel Noble from Deaf Aotearoa New Zealand says the internet has become hugely important as a means of communication to the Deaf and hearing impaired; they can’t access radio, TV without captions, or phones like most people do.
“I think the issue really is, how do we educate the community about these issues? A lot of hearing people talk about these issues, but we’re not exposed to these conversations,” she says.
Ms Noble knows of dozens who have been conned, and have no chance of getting their money back.
Deaf Aotearoa is encouraging people to share their experiences so it doesn’t happen to others.