The Financial Intelligence Unit of the NZ police sent out an email earlier this week to everyone registered as a reporting entity under the AML scheme, asking them to verify their details via a portal called goAML.

It will be used to report suspicious transactions and for communication with reporting entities.

But the plain-text email, which PAA general manager Jenny Campbell said was “appallingly written”, looked very much like a scam.

“I had lots of panicked calls from people all over the country saying ‘I’m not sure what to do with this’.”

She said, until the email was received, very few advisers even knew they needed to register for the portal. “We had to send out an email saying it’s not a scam, it’s real and it’s probably a good idea to register even though it’s not compulsory.”

But some advisers have since found that their systems are too advanced for the goAML technology.   

One adviser requested assistance when he received an error message. He received a reply: “At this stage goAML Web does not support IE10. To resolve the issue try reverting to IE7/8/9 or us Google Chrome or Firefox.”

Campbell said it was the only hiccup so far with AML legislation. “It’s probably understandable. They were tweaking the legislation as late as last month. That’s not a lot of time for the regulator to get up to speed.”