Pension scams rife; 14% of over 50s offered free advice and investments

Scammers and criminals have been using a variety of “sophisticated” methods in order to con people over the age of 50 out of their savings. Retirement Advantage has warned that people need to be “wary of unsolicited approaches” by email, telephone, text messages or in writing.

Retirement Advantage has found that 14% of non-retired people over the age of 50 with a defined contribution pension or individual pension have been approached by someone offering free pension advice or investment opportunities. However the ban on pension cold calling is looking to lessen the fraudulent activity.

Retirement Advantage pensions technical director Andrew Tully commented: “Pension scams are one of the unintended consequences of the pension freedoms and three years on we are only just getting to grips with the issue. Scammers are using increasingly sophisticated ways of conning people out of their money.

“Following a campaign from the industry led by chartered financial planner Darren Cooke, the government is planning to ban cold calling. This can’t come soon enough and should send a clear message to consumers that unsolicited contact is going to be a scam.

Tully further stated that the “simple message” should be “if it looks too good to be true, it almost certainly will be”.

    Share Story:

Recent Stories


Helping landlords make their cash work harder
MoneyAge Editor, Adam Cadle, talks to Family Building Society BDMs, Arif Kara and Nathan Waller, about the resilient BTL market, the wide variety of landlords that Family Building Society caters for, and how niche products like an Offset mortgage can help improve cashflow.

An outlook on the BTL market
MoneyAge Editor, Adam Cadle, talks to Landbay senior regional account manager, Alex Witham, about current market sentiment within the BTL space and Landbay’s success in this area

Empowering advisers: A decade of education in Later Life Lending with Air Academy
Michael Griffiths is joined by chairman of Air Club and former founder and CEO of Air, Stuart Wilson, and head of the Air Academy, Daniel Holden, to look back on a decade of business focused learning at the Air Academy.


FREE E-NEWS SIGN UP

Subscribe to our newsletter to receive breaking news and other industry announcements by email.

  Please tick here to confirm you are happy to receive third party promotions from carefully selected partners.