ACC system could be down for two weeks after 'fraudulent access'

The Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) has taken down its online system while it investigates a “fraudulent” scheme involving false travel reimbursement claims.

The system was taken down a week ago, and a statement was posted on the crown entity’s website saying it had detected “unusual transactions”.

ACC Chief Executive Megan Main said it appeared likely to have been perpetrated by several people.

“At this stage it seems that a large proportion of those committing the apparent fraud were using their own MyACC account, or the accounts of others who had shared identity information with them,” she says.

ACC had identified 500 account holders who recently had their personal details changed, which would now have to be verified.

“On discovering the issue, we shut down MyACC and began an urgent forensic investigation, working with external experts to determine more about the perpetrators and the possible original source of the identity information that was used.”

ACC said the Office of the Privacy Commissioner had been notified of the issue, along with the Police.

A man who relies on ACC payments told Stuff the outage did not appear to have an end date and had made budgeting ahead of Christmas difficult.

The man, who asked not to be named, said that he usually used the system to find out when payments over the holiday period would be made.

“I’m on 80% of what I was earning when I was paralysed some years ago. The cost of everything has gone up, but not my ACC payments.

“Over Christmas, you don’t know when you will get the next payment. It’s the same with New Years. It’s an expensive time of year and I don’t want to run out of money.”

He said that while ACC had given customers an email address and phone line to contact in lieu of the online portal, in his experience they could take up to two weeks to respond.

ACC Deputy Chief Executive for Service Delivery Amanda Malu acknowledged it could be frustrating to wait when its communication lines were busy, and apologised for any delay.

Malu did not respond to questions about why the outage had lasted so long and what work remained, but reaffirmed that there was no evidence of a cybersecurity breach.

She hoped that the online portal would be restored within the next seven days.

“ACC is providing support to its clients through branch, contact centre and email channels and we will continue to provide extended hours of service as needed.

“Digital forms are available on its website for people wanting access to claims services.”