According to New Zealand B2B News, New Zealand suffered approximately $160 million in fraud losses over the past year, including about $19 million lost to a “relationship and trust” scam that targets people they know and exploits close relationships. The article points out that local Pacific communities are becoming a severe hotspot for crypto scams. Because this group has a large economic footprint (previously contributing about $4.8 billion in GDP to New Zealand, and with church assets exceeding $300 million), scammers are specifically penetrating its internal trust networks such as families and churches. For example, this February, the New Zealand FMA, together with regulators from multiple countries, issued a warning about the unregistered crypto scam BG Wealth Sharing.