The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) of New Zealand said it recorded an increase in the number of investment scams discovered during its recent fiscal year that ended in June 2022. Across all categories, the regulator highlighted 111 cases during the period, which represents a 17% increase from 95 cases in 2021.

Giving a breakdown, the FMA said that scam cases include 105 suspected fraudulent schemes, 48 unregistered businesses and one fake regulator (that impersonated the FMA). In 2021, the numbers came in at 89, 24 and two cases, respectively.

The FMA disclosed these numbers in its 2022 Annual Report that was released on Tuesday. According to details in the report, the regulator’s scam warnings have been increasing year-over-year from 83 cases highlighted in 2020.

“Since the start of COVID-19, we have seen a spike in investment scam complaints, particularly related to social media contact scams, romance-investment hybrid scams, and imposter websites,” the FMA said in the report.

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However, the FMA in its 2022 Ease of Doing Business Survey reports that of the 162 industry stakeholders it surveyed, 78% agreed that it maintains a strong enforcement function that discourages misconduct. In 2021 and 2020, the stakeholders’ sentiment in this regard came in at 71% and 78% in agreement levels, respectively.

“This result has returned to its 2020 level after a dip last year. While our approach to enforcement did not substantially change over the period, stakeholder perceptions for a particular year may be influenced by individual cases or outcomes. We will continue to look for opportunities to promote our enforcement activity and work to help deter misconduct,” FMA wrote in the report.

New Zealand’s FMA Enforcement Actions in Recent Months

The FMA has executed a number of enforcement actions in recent months. In late December, the regulator filed a civil lawsuit against the local subsidiary of the online brokerage firm, Tiger Brokers, for alleged breaches of its rules on anti-money laundering (AML Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Anti-money laundering (AML) is a term that describes laws, processes, and regulations that are intended to prevent illegally obtained funds from being disguised as income gained through legitimate means. The fundamental purpose of the AML laws is to help safeguard, detect, and report suspicious activity including the predicate offenses to money laundering and terrorist financing, such as securities fraud and market manipulation.Most exchanges have AML measures that include identity verification Anti-money laundering (AML) is a term that describes laws, processes, and regulations that are intended to prevent illegally obtained funds from being disguised as income gained through legitimate means. The fundamental purpose of the AML laws is to help safeguard, detect, and report suspicious activity including the predicate offenses to money laundering and terrorist financing, such as securities fraud and market manipulation.Most exchanges have AML measures that include identity verification Read this Term) and counter-terrorism financing (CTF). The regulator sought a pecuniary penalty of NZ$900,000 for Tiger Brokers from the court.

In the same month, the financial markets supervisor warned against a fraudster who was parading himself as one of its clerks by cold-calling consumers to solicit personal information in order to scam unsuspecting investors.

Furthermore, the Kiwi regulator, in December last year, issued two crypto scam warnings against Bay Exchange and Krypto Security. The financial markets watchdog noted that while Bay Exchange is not licensed to provide financial services to New Zealanders, Krypto Security impersonated its officials in order to extort consumers.