Cross-border scams: Where to report?

[Rob]

If a crime has been committed in country B with the victim in country A, am I right that the victim always has to file the report locally (where the victim currently resides)? Can the victim lodge the complaint directly in country B? Can the victim participate in a class-action lawsuit in country B?

[outbackmark]

This is a difficult one Rob, as there are different laws regarding this all over the world, however, in the case of a criminal complaint, the general practice is that reports must be made to a person's local police force who would then take the matter to the accused's police force. Sometimes going through Interpol, depending on the particular arrangements or lack there-of between the two countries concerned.

In the case of a civil suit, the claimant would appoint local lawyers who would hire lawyers in the respondent's country of residence. Those lawyers would then file the claim in the respondent's country and it would be up to him, once served with summons, to appoint lawyers to defend the case.

It can get a whole lot more complicated but that is the basic method used.

[Frazzle]

My few interactions with NZ police indicate that our police are focussed on arresting criminals in NZ.

So, if there's no crime committed in NZ then the report just gets filed... it won't even go to Interpol. Reporting an overseas (e.g. South Africa, Nigeria) scam of a NZ victim is essentially a waste of time. That even applies to large amounts of money, like $400K.

OTOH, it does appear that if an overseas victim reports a potential scam done by a NZ-based scammer to the NZ Police, it will get investigated.

So, I'd say the answer to Rob's questions (at least as far as NZ goes) is that a victim doesn't need to report a crime to their local police (although it may perhaps help). They can lodge a complaint in the scammer's country.