Mary Aue, who runs online community noticeboard Coconut Wireless in South Auckland, said scams were rife and could lead to stigma for those who had been conned.
"Unfortunately for our Pacific community, we don't like to share about the fact we've been scammed," she said.
"There is no shame about [it], I just want to really highlight that. You're not in the wrong, it's the individual or the people who are targeting you - they're in the wrong. We just need to be a lot smarter and I think we need to talk a lot more about the scams that are happening out there."
