New law to ban cold callers from targeting pension cash

COLD callers who con the elderly out of their private pensions will be fined up to £500,000, ministers announced as they unveiled a ban on the practice.

Fraudsters will also be barred from contacting prospective customers by emails or texts to better protect “vulnerable” pensioners.

Some 250million cold calls – or eight every second – are made each year aimed at convincing people to move their pensions savings into fake trusts. The scams often involve encouraging people to invest in foreign property or wine collections with the lure of higher yearly returns – only for the money to be stolen once transferred.

The move comes after The Sunday Telegraph repeatedly exposed the scale of cold calling and the impact it can have on families and businesses.

Speaking to this newspaper, Guy Opperman, the pensions minister, said the suffering of those caught up in the scams convinced the Government to

act. “For some people, their private pension is their biggest asset. The loss of that asset is a catastrophic situation,” Mr Opperman said.

“The Government believes these changes will provide proper protection for pensioners. We want to ensure there is no exploitation of the vulnerable or the elderly, because there is some evidence this has happened in the past. We want it to stop.”

New figures show people have been conned out of £43million in the last three years, with the average victim losing £15,000.

Ministers are announcing two major changes. The first is an official ban on cold calls targeting private pensions, including text messages and emails, which will be enforced by the Information Commissioner’s Office, with fines of up to £500,000 for offenders.

Businesses will only be exempt from the ban if the individual concerned has expressly requested information or has an existing relationship with the company.

The second change will stop people from transferring their private pensions pots into so-called “dormant” companies, which are not actually investing any money. Stephen Barclay,

Economic Secretary to the Treasury, said: “Pensions are often the most valuable asset a person has – and that’s why we are determined to crack down on scammers and protect our hardworking savers.”

Legislation will be needed to make the changes, with Government sources indicating that it is likely the ban can come into law in early 2018.