Warning over investment scams for older people

ONE in four investment scam victims in the past year has been aged over 55, losing nearly £26,000 on average, according to a bank’s data.

Lloyds Bank said that while the majority of victims tend to be younger, older customers aged 55-plus typically lose around five times the average amount lost by younger customers.

Some 26 per cent of investment scam victims in the past 12 months were people over the age of 55, with the average amount they were losing to an investment scam at £25,944.

The remaining 74 per cent of scam victims who were 54 or under lost £4,486 on average.

More than half (51 per cent) of investment scam victims were people age 18 to 34, with an average loss at £2,000 as victims will have had less time over their lives to save.

In one case, dealt with by Lloyd’s sister brand Halifax, an 81-year-old retired businessman completed an online questionnaire expressing interest in taking out a fixed bond investment.

The next morning, he received a call from a man from a wellknown investment company suggesting they send him a prospectus.

A string of convincing activities then followed, including emails, a clone website and even calls from someone claiming to be a “compliance manager” checking the customer’s eligibility to invest.

The pensioner was keen to invest £80,000 that he had set aside for his children.

But when he contacted his Halifax branch, the manager asked for more details about the payment and expressed concerns about the “opportunity”.

He suggested making checks, and the scam came to light before the customer had lost his money.

The customer said: “If the Halifax team hadn’t flagged this fraud, the money would be gone. When I hear about friends and family making investments, I always ask them to double-check the company is legitimate.

“These scammers are evil, they go home to their normal homes and families and don’t see the people they’re scamming as people, they’re just after the money.”

Halifax has given the customer help and advice to stay safe in the future. Research by Lloyds last November suggests a lack of contact with others has caused nearly a quarter of people to let down their guard against scams during the pandemic

Research commissioned by Lloyds Bank surveyed more than 2,000 UK adults and found that an estimated 3.6 million people have been scammed since the start of the coronavirus crisis.

Nearly a third (31 per cent) of people surveyed gave out their personal details over the phone to someone they did not know.