Credit card scammers live the high life (Auckland, New Zealand)

A syndicate of scammers is buying a luxury lifestyle after obtaining the credit card details of genuine bank customers.

The gang has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars using card details of more than 100 people in Auckland and Hamilton.

Their purchases included spa pools and high-end furniture.

Detectives are unsure how they are getting the information - prompting a warning that every cardholder is a potential victim.

The fraudsters are understood to buy the goods online or over the phone and send gofers to collect them - often in vans rented with the fraudulently obtained details.

Because the transactions have been processed before the goods are picked up, the retailers hand over the goods without asking to see the card, leaving them liable for the debt.

Five officers from Auckland's fraud squad were assigned to the case on Monday.

Police are understood to believe the card details could have been obtained in a number of ways: discarded receipts, over the net or through people passing them on.

Inquiry head Detective Lynley Tubman would not be drawn on specifics but said the scam had been operating "for a while".

One National Bank Visa holder from Auckland was told of three fraudulent transactions on his card - $1000 at a furniture store, $97.70 at Pizza Hut and $83 at Hell's Pizza.

His bank told him it had cancelled the transactions and the card, and was helping police.

National Bank personal banking branch network general manager John Maurice refused to say how and where the card was compromised.

"The incident affects less than 10 National Bank credit card customers and may involve other banking organisations.

"As the matter is currently under police investigation we will not be commenting further at this time."

An Auckland furniture retailer, who banks with Westpac, believed he was another victim.

He said a man called his high-end store about six weeks ago and inquired about some expensive chairs he had seen on the website.

He said he needed them urgently and his wife would pop in and view them.

The man rang back to say his wife wouldn't have time to visit but bought them over the phone. "He gave an address and credit card details and the transaction went through," said the retailer, who asked not to be named.

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Welfare cheat cauhgt on Facebook.com in New Zealand

You can cheat people some of the time but you cannot cheat all the people all the time. This is the saying that proved to be true.

A young lady who claimes to be a solo mom (that is what we call single mother in New Zealand) and claims up to NZ$480 per week instead of NZ$140 a week (as she is legally staying with her partner)! She was "careless" enough to annouce to the world of her real life relationship with her partner.

She is convicted by the court of law for welfare cheat, thanks to facebook.com and bebo.com. This is something like what you read on the interent about "stupid criminals". Read the full story here.

iPhone users to get Skype service (VOIP, Auckland, New Zealand)

Skype has confirmed that iPhone users will be now be able to use its internet telephony service. The firm's native voice over internet protocol (VoIP) application - Skype for iPhone - will be available for download from Apples iTune store on Tuesday. The new service will allow users to make free calls to Skype users, but will charge for calls to other numbers. The UK's first Skype capable handset was launched by Mobile operator 3 on 2 November 2007. Rival applications from Fring and TruPhone are already available for the iPhone. Unlike traditional mobile calls, which are transmitted over a cellular network, VoIP turns your voice into data and sends it over the internet using a wi-fi network. This means the only cost to the user is for sending internet data; for iPhone users this means no cost at all, as they get unlimited internet access within fair usage limitations. VoIP firms will levy a charge for users making calls outside its user base. In the case of Skype, while calling another Skype user will be free, calling an actual phone number via the service will incur a cost. Iphone users will not be able to make Skype calls, either to Skype contacts or to landlines, over the mobile network, something users of Skype on the UK mobile network 3 can do. Watching the pennies Many of Skype's other features - such as video conferencing and the ability to receive a second Skype call - have been left out, although the firm did not rule them out in the future. "We're considering video carefully but we have a really high bar on the quality," said Skype's chief operating officer Scott Durchslag. "If we do it we will have to do it incredibly well." Mr Durchslag said he had high hopes for the application. "The number one request we get from customers is to make Skype available on iPhone," he said. Skype plan to launch a service for BlackBerry users in May.

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