If you’ve been scammed
Have you been scammed? You might feel vulnerable, upset, or embarrassed. We’re here to help. This guide explains what to expect from us under the Code of Banking Practice.
Tell us quickly
If you think you’ve been scammed, contact us immediately.
We’ll try to get your money back and we’ll also help protect your banking.
You can call us seven days a week, 24 hours a day:
- On 0800 269 296
- On +64 4 470 3142 from overseas (charges may apply)
- Within the ANZ goMoney app by selecting Profile (top left icon) > Support > Contact us.
You can also visit any ANZ branch.
Can I get my money back?
What happens next depends on whether:
- Someone accessed and used your banking or cards without authority to take money from your accounts – called an unauthorised payment, or
- You were tricked into paying under a scam – called an authorised payment scam.
We’ll ask questions to understand what happened, protect your banking, and work with others to help protect people from similar scams.
Be open and honest, even if you’re embarrassed or think you made a mistake.
Hiding information, or being untruthful, may mean we won’t compensate you.
1. Someone accessed and used your banking
If you’re eligible under the Code of Banking Practice, we’ll compensate loss from an unauthorised payment if you:
- Weren’t dishonest or negligent
- Took reasonable steps to protect your banking
- Cooperate with our information requests.
What to expect
Once we have all the information we need to understand what happened, we’ll:
- Assess if you’re eligible
- Let you know within 30 business days if we’ll compensate you.
2. Someone tricked you into paying
We’ll look at whether we met our scam protection commitments under the Code of Banking Practice. Those scam protection commitments are designed to help protect consumers from authorised payment scams.
If we didn’t meet our commitments, and you’re eligible under the Code of Banking Practice, then we’ll compensate all or part of your loss from an authorised payment scam.
How much we compensate depends on whether you took reasonable care.
Eligibility
Compensation is for consumers (personal banking).
You’re eligible if you:
- Were a consumer – you were using our banking services for personal or domestic purposes, not for a business
- Made a domestic (New Zealand) payment after 30 November 2025
- Weren’t using a third-party payment service
- Weren’t buying goods or services on a social media or online marketplace
- Weren’t dishonest or fraudulent
- Reported the scam to the New Zealand Police and us within three months of discovery (or within 12 months of the last payment)
- Cooperate with our information requests.
We’ll only compensate losses three times during our banking relationship, up to a maximum of $500,000. Beyond this, we’ll use our discretion.
What to expect
Once we have all of the information, we’ll let you know within 30 business days if we’ll compensate you.
We’ll check if you’re eligible – if not, we’ll let you know quickly.
If eligible, we’ll check if we met our scam protection commitments:
- If we didn’t, we’ll compensate all or some of your loss depending on whether you took reasonable care.
- If we did, we’ll ask the bank who received your payment (the receiving bank) if they met their commitment. If they’re also a member of the New Zealand Banking Association and didn’t meet their commitment, they’ll compensate your loss.
If we believe you didn’t take reasonable care when making or deciding to make the payment, we may only compensate some of your loss. For example, you made the payment despite our warnings.
We can share your information
If we met our commitments, we share information with the receiving bank so they can check if they met their commitment and pay you compensation if they didn’t.
What happens if you’re unhappy
If you’re unhappy with our decision, let us know. We’ll work with you to try to find a solution that’s fair and reasonable.
If you’re not satisfied, you can contact the Banking Ombudsman Scheme. It’s a free and independent service which helps resolve banking complaints.
Tips to keep safe
- Pause and check before you send money, especially if it’s an unexpected request. If it’s a scam, you may not get your money back.
- Never share your online banking login details, full credit card details, or two-factor authentication codes with anyone, even someone claiming to be your bank or a well-known company.
- Always access your online banking through our goMoney app, or on our website (anz.co.nz), never from links in text messages or emails.
- Don’t grant remote access to your devices through links in email or messages, or in response to unexpected phone calls.
Our scam protection commitments
To help protect against scams, ANZ and other members of the New Zealand Banking Association have made five scam protection commitments under the Code of Banking Practice.
1. Education warnings
We’ll provide specific education warnings to consumers before certain payments are made.
Scammers target people of any gender or age, and it doesn’t matter how much money you have. It’s important to stay up to date with the types of scams.
2. Confirmation of Payee service
We’ll offer a service for consumers for some banking channels to check if the name of the person you’re paying matches the account or not (including if we can't check that account).
The Confirmation of Payee service aims to reduce the risk of paying the wrong person.
3. High-risk transaction identification
We’ll identify high-risk transactions and respond appropriately.
4. 24/7 reporting channel
We’ll provide a 24/7 reporting channel for customers and respond to reports of a scam within a reasonable timeframe.
To report scams and fraud, you can call us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
5. Information sharing
We’ll share information with other banks to help prevent criminal activity and freeze funds where appropriate.
For information on how we collect, use and share your information, see our Privacy Statement.