Police are ringing alarm bells over a new scam encouraging people to invest shares overseas.
A West Auckland business recently lost $800,000 when it bought what it thought were shares in an overseas mining firm.
Police said the scam involved a company called Nomura Financial, based in Hong Kong, and Lantern Mining, based in China.
They said it cold-called people, and had professional looking emails, letterheads and media releases.
Detective Sergeant Nick Salter said the companies were fake, and people should only use New Zealand brokers, who are bound by New Zealand law, when investing overseas.
He said Nomura Financial had piggybacked off the genuine Nomura Holdings, a Japanese financial holding company established in 1925.
He is working with Interpol to try to trace the scammers but said they had already shut down and would start up again under a new identity.
