More than half of over-65s have been targeted by con artists

MORE than half of over-65s have been targeted by con artists, putting the savings of 5.7 million pensioners at risk.

Of these, hundreds of thousands have lost money to fraudsters after being contacted by phone, over the internet or in person, a major study reveals.

The ‘frightening’ findings follow revelations by the Daily Mail last week that sensitive personal details were being sold for as little as 5p and ending up in the hands of criminals.

The Mail investigations unit found that one data firm, Sequester, was offering information on people with eating disorders, stress and 41 other health conditions for just 12p a head.

It is feared that the changes that came in this week giving savers easier access to their pension pot will leave more people at risk to scams. The new report pointed out that the elderly are increasingly vulnerable to fraud as they become more active online.

It showed that, while pensioners were no more likely to be targeted or to respond to a scam, they were almost guaranteed to lose money if they did. While 70 per cent of people who replied to a con lost cash as a result, the likelihood neared 100 per cent of over-65s.

Pensioners were also more prone to lose large amounts, with over-65s twice as likely to be conned out of £1,000 or more.

Vishing and phishing – where con artists try to extract sensitive information over the phone or internet – were the most common types of fraud across all ages.

But the elderly were more likely than most to be contacted by rogue traders, while also less likely to suffer bank card fraud. The charity Age UK found that over-18s had lost a combined £50 million after responding to a scam. And while half had been contacted by fraudsters via a phone call, text, email, post or face-to-face, the majority never reported it.

Caroline Abrahams, of Age UK, said older people remained especially at risk because of issues such as ‘social isolation, cognitive impairment, bereavement and financial pressures’.

She said: ‘The degree of sophistication used to pull off some successful online or telephone frauds against older people is truly frightening.’ She urged the Government to set up a national scams task force to bring the problem into ‘renewed focus’.

The survey of 1,000 adults, by Populus, found 53 per cent of over- 65s and 54 per cent of all adults had been contacted by fraudsters.

Around one in 12 adults had responded to a scam.