How to deal with the scammers: just say NO
COLD CALLS
ANY phone call out of the blue from someone offering a free pension review, an unbeatable investment opportunity or to liberate your pension, should sound an alarm bell.
The investment might ‘guarantee’ higher returns for your savings than a bank or your employer’s contributions. Scammers may follow up by sending a glossy brochure while some may copy the name of a reputable business to make it believable. But if you weren’t expecting the call, be suspicious.
WHAT TO DO:
CITY regulator the Financial Conduct Authority recommends simply hanging up the phone.
Ignore the sales patter and conversational wizardry – such as claims they are responding to an initial form you filled out online or that the opportunity is ‘here today and gone tomorrow’.
If you frequently receive scam calls, you can also arrange ‘anonymous call rejection’ through your home phone provider, which blocks calls from withheld numbers. This is free for customers of TalkTalk, while other providers charge between £1 and £5 a month.
To find out more about blocking nuisance calls visit consumers. ofcom.org.uk/phone or call the advice line on 0300 123 3333.
SPAM TEXTS
IF you are not targeted via your landline, scams might filter through to your mobile phone instead via a text message.
Even if it’s not a text from a fraudulent firm, the message’s content could still be inappropriate. The Information Commissioner’s Office – a data protection watchdog – recently fired a warning shot to call centre Help Direct UK after it sent spam texts last year worded: ‘As you have over 10k in your pension, your pension has lost £3219.43 over the last few years, to get back & find out your payout reply REVIEW.’
WHAT TO DO:
MESSAGES with dubious claims and offers of reviews should be ignored and are, fortunately, easy enough to delete.
But before doing so, you might like to report them to your mobile network operator and help it to block the worst offenders from contacting other people. Do this by forwarding the text, for free, to 7726 – which spells ‘SPAM’ on a traditional phone keypad.
DODGY WEBSITES
THERE are plenty of websites delivering the news you want to hear – such as more tax-free cash from your pension and accessing your pension early. But sadly, it’s lies and traps all the way.
WHAT TO DO:
IF the website tells you something you didn’t previously believe to be possible, question it.
Never act on the information you read without checking its source or before taking good advice.
You can also research whether a dodgy-looking company features on the City regulator’s Warning List by visiting website scamsmart.fca.org.uk/warninglist.
DOORSTEP SELLING AND COURIER FRAUD
DOORSTEP-duping comes in different guises. For example, if you engage in conversation with a coldcaller or fill out a form online relating to early pension release or an investment deal, you may find a courier turning up at your home with paperwork to sign on the spot. People have fallen foul of this and lost their pension pot as a result.
Alternatively, a doorstep fraud might not relate directly to your pension. It could be a recommendation to use newly tapped pension cash for home energy projects or another type of home improvement.
WHAT TO DO:
NEVER sign any paperwork you have not had time to read through or consult on with a financial adviser. The hard sell at your front door is a more intrusive form of cold-calling, and it’s harder for polite British people to assert themselves when face to face with a slippery salesman.
Time to channel your inner warrior – it’s your life savings, your right to protect it and your doorstep someone is invading. Don’t be afraid to say no.
You can also try sticking a sign to the front door making it clear you do not accept doorstep selling. Design your own or download one from website MoneySavingExpert.
Anyone who tries to carry on selling regardless, after you have pointed to the sign, is not to be trusted. But for those too shy to say ‘thanks, but no thanks’, the doorstep version of hanging up the phone is to simply close – and lock – the door.
POOR ADVICE
IT does not have to be a scam to be a really bad idea. Your pension is just as much at risk from poor advice as it is from fraud.
This month the Financial Conduct Authority fined and banned Lloyd Arnold Pope, 55, and Peter Charles Legerton, 46 – both former directors of advisory firm TailorMade Independent – from holding senior positions in financial services because of serious failings in their pension advice.
Their customers, who invested more than £112million in unsuitable investments ranging from green oil and biofuels to farmland and overseas property, now face losing all of their pension funds.
WHAT TO DO:
USE an independent, whole of market adviser, who is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. You can find one via dedicated websites such as Unbiased and VouchedFor.
Karen Barrett, chief executive of Unbiased, says: ‘The earlier you seek advice, the better. Ten to 15 years before retirement is ideal – but even if it’s too late for that, you’ll need an adviser to help you use your pension freedom to good effect and avoid a costly mistake.
‘Even before the pension freedoms came along, our research found that people who took advice leading up to retirement could boost their annual income from their pension by more than £3,600 on average.
‘In most cases this is substantially more than the cost of atretirement advice, so a majority of pensioners should find the advice pays for itself within the first year alone.’
Unbiased is currently offering a free pension review with its trusted advisers and a £50 discount if you go on to take advice.
Visit unbiased.co.uk/campaigns/ free-pension-check. To find a checklist that helps you to compare advisers visit unbiased.co. uk/choose-your-adviser.