Cold-call pension scammers now face £500,000 fines in victory for the Mail
COLD-CALLING pension sharks face fines of up to £500,000 under a ban that comes into force today.
The move is expected to stop as many as eight scam calls a second and help prevent fraudsters from swindling pensioners out of their life savings.
The crackdown is a victory for the Mail, which has campaigned for a clampdown on unscrupulous firms that often target the elderly and vulnerable.
Under the rules of the long-awaited ban, firms can only contact pensioners if they have requested a telephone call or are already a customer. Firms breaching the rules face fines from the Information Commissioner’s Office.
Experts warn that some calls will still get through as companies based outside the UK will not be held to account.
It is hoped the much-delayed ban will stop calls from conmen who pretend to offer free pensions reviews and then persuade victims to transfer cash into risky investments. As many as eight scam telephone calls are made to pension holders every second, according to figures from the Money Advice Service.
Since April 2014, £43million of retirement savings have been stolen by fraudsters. Despite the new measures, former pensions minister Baroness Ros Altmann said scammers could still try to pretend to be from a customer’s existing pensions provider, which are allowed to make cold calls. She said: ‘The message to the public needs to be clear. It is never okay for someone to call you about your pension out of the blue.’
John Glen, economic secretary to the Treasury, said: ‘We know that cold-calling is the pension scammers’ main tactic, which is why we’ve made them illegal.’