{"id":15453,"date":"2025-10-24T07:23:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T18:23:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=15453"},"modified":"2025-10-24T07:23:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T18:23:06","slug":"she-felt-like-a-fool-elderly-woman-loses-life-savings-in-global-scam-with-nz-connection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=15453","title":{"rendered":"\u2018She felt like a fool\u2019: Elderly woman loses life savings in global scam with NZ connection"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A New Zealand man has been jailed for his role in an international scam that stole $17,000 from a pensioner who thought she was talking to Apple support. Edward Gay reports.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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A New Zealand man involved in an international call centre scam that stole the life savings of a vulnerable pensioner has been jailed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Kanwarpal Singh<\/a>\u00a0appeared at the Manukau District Court on Thursday having earlier admitted 10 charges, including receiving stolen property, taking cars, driving charges and two theft charges.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Singh\u2019s lawyer Kristen Moyer told the court that her client went off the rails after the parents of his \u201clife partner\u201d arranged her marriage to another man.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cHe didn\u2019t respond well to that.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Moyer said Singh lost his job at Sky City and started using drugs before being arrested.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cHis time in custody has been good for him, in the sense it has meant time away from drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Judge Ngaroma Tahana said she had received a victim impact statement from the woman, aged in her 80s, who lost her money to Singh and the international scammers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cNot only did you affect her financially – these were her life savings which now means they are no longer able to go on a planned holiday – you also impacted her emotionally.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cAs a result of being scammed, she now feels like a fool.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Judge Tahana said the woman found it difficult to trust people.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Court documents released to\u00a0Stuff<\/em>\u00a0show that on the night of June 3, 2023, the Palmerston North woman got a call from an international number.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The man on the other end said he was from Apple and, over three phone calls, convinced her to download two pieces of software used to transfer cash overseas.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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After the calls, two unauthorised payments were made from her bank account totalling $17,450.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Of the stolen money, $9950 was transferred directly into Singh\u2019s Kiwibank account.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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On the same night, he went to Countdown in M\u0101ngere and made two withdrawals totalling $4000 in cash.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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He then went to another ATM nearby and made two more withdrawals of $500 each .<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Singh later transferred more than $4000 to a Wise account before buying more than $900 in cryptocurrency.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Kiwibank later froze Singh\u2019s account, but by then it only had $23.10 in it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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When police caught up with him, he told them he had no idea where the money had come from or who had made the withdrawals, but said it wasn\u2019t him.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Judge Ngaroma Tahana recognised Kanwarpal Singh\u2019s offer to sell his car and repay the money as a clear sign he was remorseful.\u00a0Lawrence Smith<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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In sentencing Singh, Judge Tahana started with a sentence of 2 years and 9 months before providing discounts for Singh\u2019s early guilty pleas and remorse.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Some of the pensioner\u2019s money had been recovered but there was still $6450 missing. Singh told the court he would sell his car to pay back the money.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThat is a very tangible demonstration of remorse,\u201d Judge Tahana said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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She ended by sentencing Singh to one year and 10 months in prison.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Judge Tahana said she would allow Singh to apply to commute his sentence to home detention and encouraged him to find a place in a drug rehabilitation programme.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cWhat\u2019s clear to me is that your offending was driven by your drug addiction.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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She imposed special release conditions that included not to use drugs and to undergo a drug rehabilitation programme.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/div>\n
More from
\nEdward Gay \u2022 Senior reporter<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

edward.gay@stuff.co.nz<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The victim of Singh\u2019s offending earlier told\u00a0Stuff<\/em>\u00a0she had been trying to reach Apple and it was a terrible coincidence when she got a call from the scammers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The woman, who\u00a0Stuff<\/em>\u00a0agreed not to name, had a message to others who received calls from strangers claiming to represent companies: \u201cYou\u2019ve got to be awake.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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She said people needed to check the phone number the call was coming from and be wary if it was from overseas.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThese things happen. You get bitten once but not twice \u2026 I just hope he doesn\u2019t get off scot free and he learns his lesson.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Detective Senior Sergeant Craig Bolton of Auckland\u2019s Financial Crime Unit earlier told\u00a0Stuff<\/em>\u00a0that scammers often targeted the elderly using landlines.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThey usually convince the victim to allow them to remotely access their computer,\u201d Bolton said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The scammers would then access the victim\u2019s online banking account and transfer money from their account to another they had control of. Sometimes that involved transferring cash to another person in the scam so the money could be laundered, in an effort to cover their tracks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cUnfortunately, there are people out there looking to rip good people off, so it\u2019s important to always remain vigilant,\u201d Bolton warned.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Journalism like this takes a lot of dedication and resources. Support our work.<\/div>\n

Learn more<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cBanks, police or other institutions will never ring you and ask you to provide banking details, passwords or PINs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIf anyone gets a call from someone proposing that they are from such a place, disconnect the call and contact whoever the scammer is proposing to be, via a number sourced independently.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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He said anyone who believed they have been the victim of a scam should report it to their bank and the police immediately.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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–\u00a0Stuff<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A New Zealand man has been jailed for his role in an international scam that stole $17,000 from a pensioner who thought she was talking to Apple support. Edward Gay reports. A New Zealand man involved in an international call centre scam that stole the life savings of a vulnerable pensioner has been jailed. Kanwarpal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":15454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15453"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15455,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15453\/revisions\/15455"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}