Pension scammers hit by ban on cold calling

ROGUE companies are to be banned from cold calling households about pensions.

Last year, around 107,000 people between the age of and 64 were targeted by firms offering free pension reviews or attractive ways to invest their life savings, according to the City Watchdog.

But if retirees handed over their money it was sometimes stolen or invested in high-risk schemes, with the average person losing £91,000.

Now in a major victory for the Daily Mail, draft regulation to ban pension cold calls has been finalised.

Experts say it could be in place before the end of the year.

Households will now have to opt in to marketing calls before companies can contact them.

Firms that flout the rules will be fined up to £ 00,000.

Kate Smith, from Aegon, the insurance firm, said: ‘The pension cold-calling ban has been a long time coming and although it won’t be the panacea, a ban will go some way to protecting people from pension scammers.’