Fake Sumitomo Mitsui Financial representatives hit New Zealand investors

Fraudsters posing as representatives of a legitimate Japanese finance company have been trying to fleece New Zealand investors in a sophisticated share purchase scam.

The fraudsters had been making cold calls on investors, posing as representatives of Japanese firm Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Corporation and making lucrative share offers, New Zealand's ministry of consumer affairs said in a statement.

The scamsters had accessed phone numbers from publicly available shareholder lists in a bid to make their approach more plausible, Xinhua news agency quoted the statement as saying.

They tried persuading their victims to sell underperforming shares in their portfolios, sending payment instructions that looked legitimate and refund documents offering "protection" in the event the sale failed.

They had also created a clone website of the actual company.

According to ministry of consumer affairs team leader Jarrod Rendle, the callers were very clever and persuasive.