The Department of Internal Affairs has revealed a staggering jump in reported SMS scams, but the real story behind the numbers might not be quite what it first appears.
According to DIA's newly published 2025 Digital Messaging Transparency Report, New Zealanders reported more than 1.39 million SMS scams in 2025, compared with just over 103,000 the year before, a 1,240 percent increase.
A Reporting Revolution, Not Necessarily a Scam Explosion
Before jumping to conclusions about scammers suddenly flooding the country with over ten times more scam texts, it's worth understanding exactly what changed here.
DIA General Manager of Digital Safety and Identity Investigations, Jared Mullen, was direct about the real driver behind the numbers.
"The significant increase in reports demonstrates how making reporting easier can improve our visibility of scam activity targeting New Zealanders," Mullen said.
The key change was the introduction of One-Click Reporting on supported Apple devices at the end of 2024, letting users flag a suspicious message directly from their phone with a single tap, rather than needing to manually forward it or visit a separate website.
| Year | SMS Scam Reports |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 103,000+ |
| 2025 | 1.39 million+ |
In other words, this dramatic increase likely reflects how many scam texts were always landing in New Zealanders' inboxes, but were previously going unreported simply because reporting was too much friction for most people to bother with.
Android Users Getting the Same Tool Soon
Given how effective the Apple rollout proved to be at surfacing genuine scam activity, DIA is now extending the same One-Click Reporting capability to Android users.
That expansion matters significantly, since it should give the Department a much fuller national picture of scam activity across the entire population, rather than just the portion using Apple devices.
Email Scams Tell a Different, Steadier Story
While SMS reporting numbers exploded due to the new tool, email scam reports followed a much more modest trend, one likely closer to genuine year-on-year change rather than a reporting methodology shift.
DIA received almost 58,000 email scam reports in 2025, an increase of 8 percent compared with the previous year, a far more incremental rise that suggests email scam activity itself is growing steadily rather than spiking dramatically.
How Scammers Are Actually Operating
Mullen pointed to a consistent pattern behind the scams DIA is seeing, regardless of whether they arrive by text or email.
"Criminals are increasingly using convincing messages, trusted brands and emerging technologies to make scams appear legitimate," Mullen said.
He specifically flagged that scammers continue to impersonate trusted organisations and well-known brands as a core tactic, designed to trick people into either sharing personal information or making direct payments.
Why Reporting Actually Matters Beyond the Numbers
It might be tempting to think reporting a scam text does little beyond logging a statistic somewhere, but Mullen was clear that public reporting plays a direct, practical role in disrupting scam networks.
"Information provided by the public is critical in helping us identify scamming trends and disrupt them," he said.
A Coordinated National Response
This report also sits within a broader government effort to tackle scams more systematically. In July 2025, the Government launched the New Zealand Anti-Scam Alliance, bringing together government agencies alongside industry partners to strengthen the country's collective response.
As part of that wider initiative, DIA supported a cross-sector pilot involving telecommunications providers, banks, digital platforms and other government agencies, specifically focused on improving how quickly intelligence about active scams gets shared and acted on.
The Scale of Disruption Work Happening Behind the Scenes
Beyond simply collecting reports, DIA's Digital Messaging Team has been actively working to shut down scam operations throughout the year. Over the course of 2025, the team referred more than 760,000 web links and phone numbers for blocking, based largely on intelligence gathered from public reports.
That figure gives a sense of just how much scam infrastructure, fake websites, malicious links, spoofed phone numbers, is being actively identified and dismantled as a direct result of everyday New Zealanders taking the time to report suspicious messages.
How to Report a Scam Yourself
For anyone who receives a suspicious text or email, DIA has outlined several simple ways to report it:
- Use the "Report Junk" feature on supported mobile devices
- Forward suspicious text messages for free to 7726
- Report suspicious emails at reportspam.co.nz
Why This Report Matters
While the headline 1,240 percent figure looks alarming at first glance, the more useful takeaway is arguably a positive one: New Zealanders are finally reporting scams at a rate that reflects how common they actually are, giving authorities far better visibility into a problem that was likely always this widespread, just previously hidden beneath a mountain of unreported messages.
With Android users set to gain the same reporting tool soon, DIA's picture of the country's scam landscape is likely to become even clearer, and potentially even larger, in the year ahead.
This article is based on a media release issued by the Department of Internal Affairs.
