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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Field's sentence shows no one is above law - Speaker (New Zealand)

Disgraced former MP Taito Phillip Field's jail sentence shows no one is above the law, Speaker Lockwood Smith says.

Field was today jailed for six years for bribery and corruption and perverting the course of justice.

Justice Rodney Hansen sentenced Field to four years in prison on the bribery and corruption charges and two years on the charges of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

In August, a jury found the former Mangere MP guilty of 26 of the 35 criminal charges he faced at the end of a 14-week trial.

Click here for the prosecution's case

Field was found guilty of 11 of 12 charges of bribery and corruption after getting Thai nationals to carry out work on his properties in Auckland and Samoa in return for immigration assistance between November 2002 and October 2005.

He was also found guilty of 15 of 23 charges of wilfully attempting to obstruct or pervert the course of justice relating to evidence he gave to a government-ordered inquiry by Noel Ingram QC into his conduct.

As an opposition MP Dr Smith pursued Field. He asked then immigration minister David Cunliffe more than 400 questions over the Field affair, drilling into contradictions and querying answers.

Dr Smith said he was saddened that a former MP and minister had been sentenced to a term of imprisonment.

"It demonstrates that all members of Parliament are accountable for their actions and that none of us are above the law," he said through a spokesman.

Justice Hansen said an aggravating factor of Field's offending was that he was prepared to exploit the Thai nationals that he had helped.

"You saw the results, you must have known that their willing assistance was saving you tens of thousands of dollars," Justice Hansen said.

"In my view you quite consciously used their adulations of you for your private gain."

Justice Hansen also said the jury must have found Field was trying to avoid justice when making and arranging for false information to be given to the Ingram Inquiry.

"It is an aggravating factor that you recruited your Thai friends and Mr Sulusulu (another witness) into your web."

The judge went on to say Field put his private interests ahead of his public ones: "It was a test of your character and it was a test that in my view you failed."

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No favours for scam victims - New Zealand Police

The 36 overstayers who have been caught up in an alleged passport scam will not receive any protection from police.

Detective Senior Sergeant Dave Pizzini says police located the 36 people, who then lodged complaints against Gerrard Otimi.

But he says they will not have any protection from the police when it comes to their immigration status.

"It's between them and the Immigration Service. We don't have anything to do with their immigration status," Mr Pizzini said.

A spokesman for Immigration New Zealand said those who had lodged complaints would be treated the same as others who came forward.

"[Immigration New Zealand] considers their current circumstances, as against the case for them staying in New Zealand.

"This is an individualised assessment. If there is no reason for them to remain, and they are in New Zealand unlawfully, the expectation is always that they will depart New Zealand."

Otimi is facing 39 fraud-related charges and is accused of charging people hundreds of dollars for passport stamps.

He made a brief appearance in the Manukau District Court yesterday and was charged with 36 new counts relating to the alleged alteration of Samoan passports in June.

Otimi - who represented himself - initially refused to stand in the dock.

He asked Judge Anna Johns if she ordered him to stand in the dock. She said she did.

The small courtroom was packed by Otimi supporters, some of whom had protested at the recent Taito Phillip Field case.

Police have indicated that they will disclose evidence to Otimi within three weeks. The defendant will next appear on August 26.

In June, police executed three search warrants in relation to the case and found $40,000 in cash and 5000 blank "hapu certificates".

Otimi claims to be representing a hapu but Tom Roa from Ngati Maniapoto has told the Herald he has never heard of Otimi's hapu - Okahukurapukekauwhatawhataarangi.

Mr Roa was also asked if Otimi was an activist.

"Certainly I would never describe Jerry as an activist, he's an entrepreneur - he thinks beyond the square.

"The key thing really, I think, is the matter of mana," Mr Roa said.

Sales of virtual goods boom in US (Gadget, news, report, review)

Americans look set to spend $1bn (£600m) on virtual goods in 2009, claims a report.

The cash will be spent on add-ons for online games, digital gifts and other items that exist only as data.

Total spend on such items is expected to be up by 100% over 2008 and to double again by the end of 2010, said the analysts behind the report.

In related news, Facebook is updating its gift store so it offers a wider variety of virtual presents.

Social games

Written by games analysts Justin Smith and Charles Hudson, the report says that virtual goods are proving ever more popular with gamers and users of social network sites such as Facebook.

Many players of massively multiplayer online games such as World of Warcraft, spend real money on virtual currency to ensure their in-game avatars have the best gear.

Some games in Asia also use the so-called micro-payments model to fund their games in lieu of a monthly subscription fee.

Now, people playing social games such as virtual agriculture simulation Farmville on Facebook are using real cash to purchase game dollars for additions to their farm. Firms such as Zynga, Playdom and Playfish are all growing fast on the back of the rise in social gaming.

The purchase of virtual goods on smartphones, such as Apple's iPhone, are also starting to take off, said the report.

The figures in the report deal only with sales in the US. Introducing the report, the authors said: "While virtual goods have been driving revenues in Asia and Europe for years, 2009 will be remembered as the year virtual goods-based businesses began to scale in the United States."

Facebook has announced an overhaul of its virtual gift shop to expand the range of digital presents members can buy and send to friends, family and colleagues.

As well as virtual birthday cakes and pints of beer, Facebook users can now also send music tracks to each other.

The music service will initially only be available in the US. One Facebook credit (10 US cents/6p) buys one streamed song. Ten credits buys a downloadable MP3.