UK pensioners lose £30m to scammers
Pension savers claim over £30m ($39.4m) has been lost to scams over the past three years, according to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and The Pensions Regulator.
Pension pots of all sizes have been victims of scams, with reported losses ranging from under £1,000 to as much as £500,000. A total of £30,857,329 has been reportedly lost to pension scammers since 2017, according to complaints filed with Action Fraud.
However, the true number of scams is likely to be much higher as savers often miss signs of a scam and are unaware of how much is in their pots in the first place.
Scammers use tempting offers to persuade people to transfer their pension pot to them, often using ploys of “time-limited offers” or deadlines to pressure pensioners into handing over their money.
Cold calling relating to pensions has been banned since 2019, but criminals still use this method to scam people out of their cash.
Two thirds (65%) of pensioners said they would be confident in spotting a scam approach, but four in 10 (39%) would unknowingly put themselves at risk by engaging with a scam tactics such as being told it’s a time-limited offer or that there is a guaranteed high return on their savings, the FCA said.
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