• Aroha Hicks lost $250 to a scam advertising locally-sourced meat on Facebook.

• The scam involved a page called “NZ Meat Supplies” using images from legitimate Australian sites.

• Netsafe’s Sean Lyons advises caution with online transactions and urges people to report suspicious activity to police.

A Rotorua woman is urging people to be cautious after falling victim to a scam advertising locally-sourced meat.

Aroha Hicks, 63, lost $250 after purchasing what she thought was a whole lamb from a Facebook page calling itself “NZ Meat Supplies”.

NZ Meat Supplies has been posting in multiple community Facebook groups offering whole lambs and pigs, along with combo meat boxes.

The page takes images from legitimate Australian meat sites and is similar in design to two other scam pages circulating there.

“I saw New Zealand Meat Supplies, locally-owned. I thought, ‘Oh yeah, looks like good meat, advertised nicely, packages, etcetera’. So I decided to purchase a whole lamb for $250,” Hicks told the Herald.

The scam 'NZ Meat Supplies' targets people through social media pages. Photo / Facebook

“I thought that would get us a few weeks of kai with all my grandchildren home.”

Initially, everything seemed legitimate.

Hicks received a confirmation message thanking her for supporting the local meat industry and instructions to make the payment.

However, when the payment details arrived, she began to have doubts.

“They sent me a bank account name, and I thought it seemed suspicious that it was a personal account instead of a business one. But they explained that the administrator was on holiday, so I went ahead and made the payment,” Hicks said.

The delivery was scheduled for December 31, and Hicks received assurances that she would get an SMS update.

However, by the afternoon of the promised delivery date, the SMS had not arrived, and her son grew suspicious.

“My son suggested I might have been scammed. He pointed out that there were no reviews or details about the page, and then I realised something wasn’t right,” she said.

The page uses images taken from legitimate companies to attract customers. Photo / Facebook

Hicks attempted to contact the seller again but found she had been blocked.

She’s not the only person to fall victim to the scam. Multiple Kiwis say they’ve been ripped off by the page — which ironically has published their orders as evidence of satisfied customers.

Hicks said she reported the incident to her bank, but they were unable to recover her money.

“They said because it was on Facebook Marketplace, they couldn’t regulate it,” she told the Herald.

The scam has left Hicks feeling betrayed and cautious about future online purchases.

“There are real buggers out there in our society that will take advantage and rip people off left, right and centre any way they can,” she said.

“At my age, we need to be more mindful and take advice from the younger ones before making purchases on Facebook. People can take advantage of you, and it’s a shame.”

Netsafe chief online safety officer Sean Lyons said identifying scam pages can be a “hard ask”.

“Obviously, there are some scam sites across the internet that might be able to be spotted more clearly, like, say, a page that is impersonating a brand or an individual. But in the case where there is simply a page, with an individual or business with a commercial offering, then it can be harder to spot a scam from a new business start-up.”

He advised shoppers to be “extremely cautious” when making transactions this way.

There was no simple fix to scams operating in this manner, but greater cooperation between the technology industry, banks and lawmakers was required to minimise hurdles for victims.

A police spokesperson said there had been no recent reports about the alleged scam, but encouraged anyone who noticed suspicious behaviour or activity to report it to police via 105.

The Herald tried contacting NZ Meat Supplies for comment but received no response.