A recent social media scam impersonating Inland Revenue’s top boss has prompted a warning from the tax agency. An image of a man said to be commissioner of Inland Revenue Peter Mersi was used as part of a social media scam inviting people to a closed live webinar on upcoming crypto tax changes. Stephen Lynch, Inland Revenue’s service owner – cyber security, said digital platforms use sophisticated algorithms to push this sort of content to people based on the user’s search history. “The image is not Peter Mersi. Incorrect versions of the Inland Revenue logo are used in other ads in the series, and the invitation is not from anyone at Inland Revenue,” Lynch said. “We believe whoever is behind the campaign is using false, probably AI-generated [artificial intelligence-generated], images and messaging to trick people into giving out personal information which is then used to access online accounts or steal someone’s identity. “Unfortunately, the use of images and artificially generated likenesses is on the increase with investment scams on social media platforms and websites being a major contributor to New Zealanders losing $265 million to fraud last year.” A social media scam using an image of a man said to be Inland Revenue commissioner Peter Mersi. Inland Revenue says it received more than 3000 reports of scams from the public in the three months to the end of February. “Ignore or delete any ads like those used,” Lynch said. “To protect yourself, use ad-blockers when browsing the web, change social media settings to restrict or limit ads, and change settings to block calls and texts from unknown numbers. “From past experience, we know that scammers are aware of important tax periods and increase their attempts to rip off Kiwis.” Lynch urged Kiwis to be extra vigilant and watch out for scammers.