EXPERT’S GUIDE TO PREYING ON PENSIONS

service, so many are harassed despite signing up to the Government’s official no-call list.

And their account manager David Light admits they are dishonest about why they are calling – because if people knew they would put down the phone.

On tricking consumers with bogus surveys ‘We’re a business at the end of the day. If you go, “You’re going to get 30 calls on the back of this”, you’re going to get a consumer going, “I don’t want to tell you any information”. It’s natural, it’s human nature. Most of the people will probably say, I don’t want it.’ B2C Data’s Nick Sayer was also scathing in the way he described the vulnerable.

On naive pensioners ‘We try and find the people where they’re not rich enough to have their own financial adviser. What you really want is people that are kind of 38 to 50, males, got a few quid, own their own home, got a pension but have not reached the wealth levels where they have their own adviser.’

On targeting pensioners ‘At the moment pensions is hot business for us. I reckon we sell pensions data ten times a month. Everybody you can legally phone will be being called about it.’

All the companies denied any wrongdoing. Prospect 360 said it would ‘never do anything underhand and we never misguide people.’ The firm denied that it targets the vulnerable.

Data Bubble said: ‘We are a reputable data broker who supplies data legally. We never like to think that somebody may be upset by a marketing call.’ The Data Partnership said: ‘We take our responsibility to both our clients and consumers very seriously. We have strict procedures in place. We strongly refute any allegations which suggest TDP is in any way contravening the law or any recognised code of practice.’