Re:Scam is Back!

In continued efforts to disrupt the scammer network, Netsafe has brought back ReScam.org, our cutting-edge AI tool designed to waste scammers time so they can’t target their next victims...

Visit ReScam.org

Rescam collage of avatars from 2017 campaign

Re:Scam 2.0

Re:Scam first appeared in 2017

Back then the game of cat and mouse prototype was online for just 6 weeks. But during that time it sent more than a million emails to scammers, wasting a total of more than 5 years of their time.

Read Netsafe's State of Scams report here

Re:Scam has the ability to engage scammers in prolonged email exchanges, mimicking human conversations powered by AI with an infinite variety of personas and a system to keep the scammer guessing.

The replay feature means that each successful Re:Scam is given a unique URL so the person who submitted the Re:Scam can watch the scam unfold - a powerful communication and education feature so more people can understand typical scams and scammers tactics

Leveraging artificial intelligence to automate a traditionally manual and time-consuming process, it enables scam baiting on a large scale and has the potential to be replicated across various channels, such as phone scams and text messages, extending beyond email in the future.

Netsafe’s CEO Brent Carey says:

$2billion

“As the rise of scam victims - and the total cost of their losses - persists in New Zealand, Netsafe continues to look for innovative ways to disrupt scammers, launching yet more products and services to prevent and support victims of scams.

Scams are a growing problem in New Zealand and costs to the economy are estimated to be $2billion annually.

New Zealand’s response to scams lags behind other OECD regions and there are government-backed calls on the banks to invest in technological upgrades. Crucially, there is no government funding for incident response and victim remediation.

Yet in recent research by Netsafe and the Global Anti-Scam Alliance, 53% of New Zealand respondents admitted to a significant emotional impact post-scam.

Only 15% of people who try to recover their funds lost to scams are successful."

By forwarding suspicious emails to [email protected], the system identifies scams and begins a never-ending conversation, wasting scammers’ time. With multiple personalities and an ever-growing vocabulary, there's no way for scammers to know they're talking to Netsafe’s specialist scam baiting intelligence system.

The systems privacy redaction feature offers additional protection for submitters and creates a proxy email address to shield the identity of any submitter as it randomly creates a new unique email address for each scam incident.

With a carousel of personas that are pitted against one another when it comes to hooking a scammer!

helpline operator on phone call looking at desktop computer in office

Scam Remediation

Netsafe Scams Helpline

Unsurprisingly, only a fraction of scams and fraud are reported to law enforcement and police resources are too stretched to prioritise cybercrime unless it occurs within the context of syndicated organised crime.

Netsafe’s award-winning helpline is a well-known and trusted clear pathway for consumer reporting of scams, as evidenced by the substantial – and growing – number of scams reports we receive.

We process around 15,000 scam reports a year from victims.

Netsafe isn’t yet funded for this work.