Elderly hit by Wolf of Wall Street scam
Hard-sell firms con them out of life savings
ROGUE firms are using Wolf of Wall Street sales tactics to con people out of their life savings.
An undercover investigation by ITV’s Tonight programme found the companies try to scare victims into ploughing their savings into risky, unregulated investments.
Eleven million pension-holders have unsolicited approaches from financial salesmen every year, according to Treasury figures.
Fears of widespread mis-selling have prompted Philip Hammond to propose a ban on cold calling. But the Chancellor’s plans have been put on hold until after the general election.
The ITV show exposes the high pressure sales techniques used by Cherish Premier Wealth. It found that:
Call centre staff are told to make 300 cold calls a day;
Staff are instructed to break industry rules by calling prospective victims multiple times;
Customers are encouraged to switch out of secure final salary pensions into risky investments.
Freedoms introduced by George Osborne two years ago have given people more flexibility to cash in their pension at the age of 55. But they have also triggered a surge in scams.
An ITV undercover reporter sent to Cherish Premier Wealth, which is based in the West Midlands, was trained by call centre manager Qasim Rafiq.
Mr Rafiq’s pitches focus on worries about high pension fees. He said customers were motivated by fear or greed. He added: ‘It’s to promote that fear. To trigger that emotion, to get that word stuck in his head, because that’s a big word that is, danger.’
Mr Rafiq said the firm was preparing to dodge any ban on cold calling by setting up call centres in Pakistan, India, Hungary and South Africa.
Another undercover reporter is told by a female member of staff what to do when a customer hangs up the phone. ‘He’s hung up but you just put them back on,’ she said. Tom McPhail,
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Cherish Premier Wealth told ITV cold it calling would not ban try and to that dodge Mra Rafiq was ‘ indulging in a bit of sales puff that overstated his position’. It said those named in the film deny the accusations. Allan Gare received a cold call from a former incarnation of Cherish while recovering from cancer. The 56-year-old ex-military engineer had a pension pot worth £50,000 and was encouraged to invest in property in Detroit and forests in Costa Rica. Five years later his life savings have been reduced to just £1,125. The forestry scheme went into liquidation and the Detroit housing project has not provided returns for two years. Mr Gare said: ‘I could be sitting and enjoying the sun because I could have retired. But that dream has gone. My pension has totally zeroed.’
How Safe Is Your Pension? airs tonight on ITV at 7.30pm.