Staying safe online
We may communicate with you by phone, email, text message, posted letter and live chat. Some of our emails and text messages contain links to our website and online services.
To stay safe online from scammers we recommend you learn about the types of communications we send out and how to spot a scam. If in doubt, check it out.
On this page
Common signs of a scam
A scam is an email, phone call or text message from someone pretending to be us. Scammers may try to get personal or payment details from you.
|
What a scammer may do |
What we do |
| The scammer might ask for login names or passwords to our online services like MyACC | We will never ask you for your login name or password |
| The scammer may pressure you to make a decision quickly | We would not pressure you to act quickly without letting you know |
|
The scammer might demand money or payment. |
We ask for payment using our official processes. Providers: Paying you for services Business customers: Paying your levy invoice |
| The scammer may be threatening | We would not threaten you or use intimidating language |
Email scams
Scam emails may try to impersonate our legitimate email address by adding new characters or changing parts of the address, for example @accc.govt.com. These scam emails may have clickable links in them, directing you to malicious websites that are designed to look like our legitimate ones.
If you’re unsure the email address is genuine by looking at it, don’t click anything in the email. Check it out first by contacting us.
Top tip: Do not click links or buttons in emails without checking the URL first. Hover your mouse over links or buttons in emails before clicking them and the website address will show. Look closely and if the website address doesn’t match the organisation you were expecting, do not click it.
If you receive a suspicious email pretending to be ACC, please report it to us. If you can, send the email as an attachment and our team will check it out.
Email: infosec@acc.co.nz
Text scams
We send text messages to customers from different parts of ACC.
If you receive a text message from us and you aren’t sure it is genuine, don’t click on any links. Contact us using one of the verified numbers or email addresses on our website and we can confirm if the text message is genuine.
Top tip: We won’t ask you to confirm personal information or login details like your username and password from a text message.
Examples of text messages we send out
This is a small sample of the types of text messages we send to our customers.
| Customer type |
Text message |
| Injured person | We confirm your claim is approved by a text message containing your claim number and links to acc.co.nz to learn about the support we provide and to our privacy notice |
| Injured person | We text or email you a code to register for a MyACC account. MyACC lets you view some of your claim details and request support online to help your recovery |
| Injured person | If we’re unable to reach you by phone, we may follow up with a text message asking you to contact us |
| Previously injured person | We may send injury prevention messages by text or email |
| Business owner | If you’ve overpaid your levy and are due a refund, we may send you a text message, email or posted letter |
| Business owner | MyACC for Business registration details or reminder messages |
Phone scams
If you get a phone call from someone claiming to be from ACC and you are unsure if this is genuine, ask for their name and phone number. Contact us on one of the verified numbers found on our website and we can confirm if the call was genuine.
Social media scams
We have social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok and Twitter. We also have a YouTube channel.
A scammer might use fake versions of a social media account pretending to be from ACC to contact you. You can check if the social media account is official by:
- Seeing how many followers it has. Our followers:
- Facebook - over 19,000
- Instagram – over 3,100
- LinkedIn – over 36,000
- TikTok – over 5,900
- Twitter – over 3,600
- Looking at the posts made on the account and how often they are posted.
- Checking when the account was created
We may contact you for research
To improve our support and services we may invite people to take part in surveys and research. We communicate using a verifiable ACC contact, like an @acc.co.nz email address.
Our Voice of Customer surveys are sent from noreply@ext.acc.nz and replies are linked to the feedback@acc.co.nz email address.
More on staying safe
If you’d like more advice on staying safe online, visit CERT NZ to learn about cyber security and report scam communications.
Privacy and protecting your information
We collect, use and disclose your information with care. Understand how we protect your privacy by reading our privacy information.