The PM dismisses the Green party alternative budget
Reporter Marii is at the World Dance Crew Championships, where hip hop duos from all around the world, including Auckland's En-Locked, are battling for medals and cash.
Police forensics team and detectives continue to comb Onekawa properties in the hunt for Kaea Karauria's killer. Video / Neil Reid
National and Labour accuse each other of lying over pay equity claims. Video / Mark Mitchell
A trailer unit rolled outside Christchurch this morning, spilling hundreds of chickens across the road. Video / George Heard
Principals question $100m maths spend, ex-cop faces porn probe, US and China agree to major tariff reductions.
Chris Hipkins delivers pre-Budget speech at the Wellington Chamber of Commerce. Video / NZ Herald
Reporter Carter is in Whangamatā where car collector Billy reveals what it took to get this custom 2-door 1950 Cadillac back on the road.
Black Power members perform a farewell haka for Manurewa homicide victim Selwyn Robson. Video / Supplied
Education Minister Erica Stanford announcing measures to improve mathematics in schools. Video / Mark Mitchell
Christopher Luxon answers a question on the resignation of the Police Deputy Commissioner
With the countries current vaccination rates, an expert warns New Zealand is at risk of a measles epidemic. Video / Dean Purcell / Katie Oliver / Ben Dickens
Christopher Luxon holds a post-Cabinet press conference
Gypsy Rose Blanchard stars in season 2 of the Lifetime series Life After Lock Up, streaming on TVNZ+ in New Zealand. Video / TVNZ
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NZ Herald
3 days ago
- NZ Herald
Notorious conman behind bars after 14-year manhunt
'I'd rank it No 1. There's some good results from bigger cases, but this one was very satisfying,' he said. 'Because it was so difficult and it took so long. He raised every single obstacle that he possibly could to avoid ending up at a substantive hearing.' Van Leewarden said parallel recovery action against Ali and WGA had recovered $7m, which was distributed in 2022 and gave his clients returns of 18c on the dollar. 'We would regard 10% as a good recovery. So 18% is really good,' he said. 'And then, of course, subsequent to that, he's arrested and he's convicted. I suppose it's a small consolation to the victims, some of them were completely decimated, financially, emotionally and physically.' Warden said Syed is contesting the guilty verdicts, and the Swiss justice system extends the presumption of innocence until proven guilty until the appeals process is exhausted. Ahsan Ali Syed Syed ran a seemingly well-resourced finance operation with lavish offices in Switzerland and Bahrain. Photo / Supplied Van Leewarden was unwilling to identify the fraud victim he represented, citing privacy and legal privilege. Reports from the time WGA was active in 2010-11 reveal Wellington Phoenix owner and Apprentice New Zealand host Terry Serepisos and former NZ Mint owner Gary McNabb were among the New Zealand victims of the multimillion-dollar fraud. Syed had run a seemingly well-resourced finance operation with lavish offices in Switzerland and Bahrain, and claimed to have $8 billion available in finance. WGA made generous-looking loan offers to a number of businessmen and developers suffering through the post-Global Financial Crisis credit crunch in 2010-11. No clients ever received loans, Swiss prosecutors claim, with WGA allegedly just a vehicle to fleece victims. '[The] sole interest and intention was that these companies would transfer the largest possible sums of money to [Syed] or the Western Gulf Advisory group and that he could use these sums of money to finance a luxurious lifestyle for himself and his family,' the indictment said. Proceeds were used by Syed to buy a private jet, a football team, and employ a small army of publicists, security guards and assistants. During Serepisos' struggles against liquidation in late 2010 and 2011, Syed was said to be considering becoming a co-owner of the Wellington Phoenix. Van Leewarden first became involved chasing Syed by representing McNabb, but over time he signed up other victims – mostly from Australia, but also one in Russia – to broaden the case, split costs and increase possible recoveries. The trail led from Syed's birthplace in India to London, where he presented as a finance tycoon and conducted due diligence purportedly considering an offer for English Premier League team Blackburn Rovers. He spent time in Spain, became a short-lived local hero by buying the ailing La Liga team Racing Santander in 2010, before the team collapsed into bankruptcy once alarms started being sounded about WGA. Marks were targeted mostly in New Zealand and Australia, typically businessmen down to their last few million and desperate for refinancing. Contracts were signed in Bahrain and Amsterdam before money was sent to Switzerland. The multiple jurisdictions made it difficult for any single national authority to take responsibility for the case, van Leewarden said. 'That's the way that they operate, and generally they're going to get away with it unless there's a real overall focus on it,' he said. He said the Serious Fraud Office was unable to provide any assistance. After the balloon went up and complaints of fraud began circulating in the media and courtrooms, Syed retreated to Bahrain and spent more than six years contesting fraud claims pushed by van Leewarden that ended in disappointment. Van Leewarden chooses his words carefully, talking about justice in the Gulf enclave: 'I had a number of briefings with the prosecutors in Bahrain. They didn't really have an appetite for the case, and they seemed anyway to arrive at a position whereby what had happened were just normal commercial transactions.' Syed then fled to Turkey, becoming a citizen there and abandoning his Indian passport, before authorities in Ankara stripped him of citizenship in 2022 and he relocated once more to London. It was then late 2022 and, arriving at London airport, Syed's luck finally ran out. Arrested by English police on a 2013 Swiss warrant for fraud that demanded extradition, Syed spent two years behind bars in Britain before his appeals against being deported were exhausted. In late 2024 he made his final journey to Switzerland where Swiss prosecutors and a New Zealand private investigator were waiting for him to finally face the music. Matt Nippert is an Auckland-based investigations reporter covering white-collar and transnational crimes and the intersection of politics and business. In 2011 he broke the first story about Western Gulf Advisory being an apparent advance fee fraud. He has won more than a dozen awards for his journalism – including twice being named Reporter of the Year – and joined the Herald in 2014 after having spent the decade prior reporting from business newspapers and national magazines.
NZ Herald
3 days ago
- NZ Herald
Tom Hiddleston spotted in Queenstown during shoot of Tenzing film where he plays Sir Edmund Hillary
Hollywood actor Tom Hiddleston (centre carrying brown bag) is pictured at the staging area below The Remarkables for an upcoming film where he plays Sir Edmund Hillary. Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech. Already a subscriber? Sign in here Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen. Tom Hiddleston spotted in Queenstown during shoot of Tenzing film where he plays Sir Edmund Hillary Hollywood actor Tom Hiddleston (centre carrying brown bag) is pictured at the staging area below The Remarkables for an upcoming film where he plays Sir Edmund Hillary. English actor Tom Hiddleston has been spotted in Queenstown this week as he films a movie playing New Zealand's greatest mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary. Hiddleston stars as the Kiwi legend in the biopic of Hillary's sherpa climbing companion Tenzing Norgay, who completed the world first summit of Mt Everest, with Hillary, in 1953. In the Herald exclusive photographs, taken near The Remarkables this week, Hiddleston is seen in cold weather gear with a bag slung around his shoulder. Staff unloading old style hiking equipment for the upcoming movie, near The Remarkables. Photo / Supplied Film crew are pictured offloading props and equipment, including old-style climbing gear, from helicopters.
Newsroom
4 days ago
- Newsroom
Phishers target community-minded Pasifika with AI ‘help scams'
Analysis: Pasifika communities across the Pacific and Aotearoa are increasingly the focus of email scammers using artificial intelligence to target them in their own language. Their cultural values are also being exploited, with their commitment to a collectivist mindset appearing to make them more vulnerable to what we call 'help scams'. Our research reveals the scale of the threat and common phishing modes of attack. We partnered with the IT department of the national government of a Melanesian country to conduct our phishing simulation study with the government's employees. We created English and national language variants of four simulated phishing emails; eight emails total. Each month for four months, 2000 participants received a simulated phishing email written in either English or the local language of their country. All participants were fluent in both languages. One email was, from a scammer's point of view, particularly successful: a request in the local language for a review of a church agenda before Sunday meeting, inviting people to click on a link. (Clicking on links enables scammers to install computer malware, harvest data, steal and defraud.) Nearly a third of recipients clinked on the link. To our knowledge, this is the first simulated phishing campaign study to focus on Pasifika people, demonstrating a 'foreign language effect – how a person can think and behave differently in their first language compared to their second (or third) language. Research in cognitive psychology suggests that emotional responses tend to be stronger in a person's first language, but more analytical and detached when thinking in their second language. Our research did suggest a 'foreign language effect'. In the Melanesian nation we worked with (we have not identified this nation to protect privacy) a local concept broadly described as 'one talk' is based around a social obligation to help those within the same language or cultural group. The concept is central to how these communities live their lives. We surmised that a message written in the national language may implicitly signal that the sender is part of that group, making the request seem more legitimate. Feedback from participants supported our hypothesis. Some said they clicked because the email was written in their local language so they assumed it was genuine. Others said they thought the government system would filter out any dangerous messages. Many simply wanted to help. 'I clicked on this link because the email is in correct [national language] and I assume was sent by a relative or friend of mine,' said one participant. We sent four emails in both English and the national language of the participant, described below: * AiiExpress: A fake shipping notification from 'info@ stating, 'Your AiiExpress order is on its way. Please click here if this is not your order.' * Jet Pacific: A promotional email from a fictional airline offering low-cost fares: 'Crazy relaunch prices! Book a return trip today from just $89.' * Budget: A request from 'Sione' to review a document: 'Hi, could you please check the updated budget? The document is here: * Church: A message requesting assistance: 'Please review this church agenda before Sunday's meeting: All the emails contained a simulated phishing link that redirected those who clicked on it to a training survey, which explained the purpose of the exercise and asked for feedback. Notably, the personal requests for help gained considerably more traction than the emails that appeared to be from companies. We know that scammers will find ways to get inside people's heads to identify and exploit their weaker spots, but our research highlights the importance of tailoring cybersecurity awareness campaigns to local contexts. When companies offer staff training on how to avoid email scams, they need to be aware of how scammers might exploit local languages and cultural norms. We also need to develop better email systems and spam filters. Spam filters are less effective for many Pacific languages because the data sets used by filter developers are limited in size, leaving these communities more vulnerable. Developers of mail filters for Pasifika languages should consider placing a particular emphasis on identifying 'help scams' and companies' systems should flag or intervene on messages containing help scam keywords. While the study focused on a specific government setting in a Pacific Island nation, the implications could extend more broadly to other multilingual or collectivist environments. As far as we know, this is the first study of Pasifika phishing susceptibility. It was part of a broader collaboration between researchers at Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland, and the government of the participating country. The study followed a 2023 symposium on phishing threats in the Pacific, and we will be presenting the results at the USENIX Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security in Seattle in August 2025
