7.3 million UK adults targeted by pension scammers
According to recent research conducted by the LV= Wealth and Wellbeing Research Programme (a quarterly survey based on the responses of 4,000 people) nearly one in seven, or 7.3 million, UK adults have been the subject of an attempted pension scam in the past 12 months.
It also found 14% of people were encouraged via unsolicited calls, texts and emails to transfer or release money from their pension and half of survey respondents agreed that scams are becoming more sophisticated and difficult to spot.
Having recently reached a landmark birthday myself (the one from which you can access your pension funds), I have first-hand experience of this, receiving no less than three unsolicited approaches from firms telling me how easy it was for me to merge my pension funds and then to access the 25% tax-free cash to pay off my mortgage, enjoy a holiday or buy a new car.
The top two most common scams of the past 12 months were receiving phishing scams (42%) and where someone impersonates a trusted brand or service provider, such as HMRC (36%).
You should certainly be more vigilant of such approaches in the current climate, with our general guidance being to:
- hang-up the call if you have any concerns or receive a cold call
- watch out for unsolicited approaches by phone, text, email or at your door
- hang-up the call if you are encouraged to call back immediately, or are encouraged to make a quick decision, as this is often a sign of a potential scam
- check if the firm is licensed to sell or if the company is on the FCA register of regulated companies, or on the FCA warning list.
As always, ‘if it sounds too good to be true – it probably is’; fraudsters like to offer low risk investments with a high return. One example is where casks of whiskey are heavily promoted offering ‘low risk’ returns of 10%+ p.a.
Avoiding falling victim to these scams is becoming more difficult, as the scammers continue to come up with more sophisticated and ingenious ways to access your details (and money), we all need to be on our guard.
If you have any doubt whatsoever then do contact us before responding or taking any action.
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