An elaborate banking "kite" scam has beaten Kiwibank's security systems and seen at least one Masterton woman lose $9000, the bank says.
Police and bank investigators are looking into the scam, which saw illegally obtained money transferred and cashed before the bank realised it was stolen.
The woman got a job as a secret shopper, which had been advertised in a local publication.
As part of the job, supposedly to test money transfer systems, she was told $9000 had been deposited into her account late on Friday afternoon.
She was asked to withdraw it in cash within an hour and send it, via the Western Union money transfer service, to a United Kingdom address.
She was told to keep some of the cash as a commission.
"It happened very quickly, and in this case, beat our system," said Kiwibank spokesman Bruce Thompson.
He described the scheme as elaborate and the woman had been used as "mule" to transfer money stolen from another Kiwibank account.
The account's internet banking, including the PIN number, had been obtained, possibly from an email "phishing" scheme or a lapse in security, which the bank was investigating, Mr Thompson said.
It was a concern that the scheme had beaten Kiwibank's security systems but the woman had provided a "huge level of cooperation" and the money was transferred very quickly, he said.
Kiwibank was taking steps to ensure it could not happen again.
Mr Thompson said similar scams involved people wiring more money than was needed to people's accounts to pay for cars or bonds on flats. The victim was then told to withdraw the money, which was illegally obtained in the first place, and send the extra cash to another party.
"The mule in all these cases has been manipulated or used to transact the money."
In the Masterton case, Kiwibank had debited the woman's account by $9000 while it investigated. It was unfortunate but she would probably not get much of her money back, Mr Thompson said.
The bank was considering where liability lay.
The job was advertised in the local paper, which gave it an appearance of legitimacy but it "involved a number of things that should have given her cause for some suspicion," he said.
