Payment Fraud Index: New Zealand 2026

Across Australia, New Zealand and the US, Eftsure verifies supplier bank details before payment is made, covering a payment volume that reflects the scale of the business payment fraud risk its customers face.

The figure reflects cumulative detections across Eftsure's customer base and illustrates the scale of payment fraud risk that finance teams face without independent verification controls in place.

If the Q1 2026 pace holds across the full year, Eftsure's fraud detection volume will increase by more than 300% year on year. The increase reflects both growth in Eftsure's customer base and a rising volume of fraud attempts reaching finance teams.

The annual total masks significant quarterly volatility. Q3 2025 alone accounted for NZ$12.4 million of that figure, driven primarily by a surge in business email compromise attacks.

The NCSC attributed the spike to business email compromise attacks, where bad actors gained access to email accounts and sent fake invoices or changed payment details to redirect payments. BEC was the defining fraud event of Q3 2025 in New Zealand.

Consistent top ranking across four consecutive quarters confirms scams and fraud as a structural issue in New Zealand's cybercrime landscape, not a one-off spike.

Of the NZ$7.8 million total, NZ$6.5 million was attributed to scams and fraud specifically. The Q1 figure set the tone for a year in which cybercrime losses would reach their highest annual level on record.

The 50% increase in business-opportunity scams in Q3 2025 points to a broadening attack surface beyond traditional invoice and payment redirection fraud, with scammers targeting employees through fake job offers and supplier onboarding processes.

The figure covers fraud reported across 12 of New Zealand's largest banks and represents the most comprehensive view of payment fraud losses in the New Zealand market.

Authorised payment fraud is the harder category to defend against because the transaction is technically approved by the account holder. It includes payment redirection fraud, where a supplier's bank details have been changed without the payer's knowledge.

Unauthorised fraud typically involves compromised credentials or card details. While significant in dollar terms, it is the authorised payment fraud category that most directly exposes finance teams, since the payment is made through normal approval channels.

The figure, cited by INTERPOL from the Global Anti-Scam Alliance, represents the broadest available estimate of the total cost of financial fraud worldwide. It provides context for the scale of the problem that regional figures like New Zealand's NZ$265 million sit within.

The surge in INTERPOL alerts reflects accelerating cross-border fraud activity. Payment fraud increasingly operates across jurisdictions, making domestic controls insufficient on their own.

The figure confirms that rising fraud is not a New Zealand or regional phenomenon. Finance teams in every market are reporting the same pressure.

INTERPOL's assessment identifies AI as a force multiplier for fraud operators, not just a tool for generating convincing content. The profitability gap between AI-enhanced and traditional fraud is the key driver behind the rapid adoption of AI by fraud networks.