Scammers have been on overdrive during lockdown and it has not gone unnoticed by the regulator, with actions accelerating on both cryptoasset derivatives and pensions.
While many of us are facing shorter hours and having to work from home, criminals are as active as ever.
It is set to be a growing problem in the current climate too, since the ability to scam someone is driven by a number of strong emotions on the part of the mark, including greed, fear of losing out and financial desperation.
For most people the pandemic has resulted in a drop in income due to furlough or the loss of their job or business altogether, creating a fertile environment for scammers to operate as people search for ways to top up lost income and make ends meet.
A further tragedy unfolding is the number of people who now face financial ruinThe financial desperation many people are feeling now as a result of the government’s actions to stem the spread of coronavirus have created a perfect environment for people to get scammed.
It is little surprise that while the FCA opened 109 investigations into firms for the whole of last year, it had already opened 85 by August this year.
It is certainly a tragedy that people have died from coronavirus. But a further tragedy unfolding is the number of people who now face financial ruin through no fault of their own.
The government schemes to help people through these times have been some of the most generous in the world, yet those in entertainment, sport and various other industries have been left to their own devices with next to no help.
The Facebook group Excluded UK claims there are 3m UK taxpayers excluded from the government’s Covid-19 schemes – not an insignificant number.
Added to that is the fast-approaching end of the furlough scheme, where millions more could lose their job entirely by the end of October. More than 1m small businesses have seen a loss in income, with around 310,000 making less than half of what they were making before the pandemic.
Mortgage lenders cannot repossess properties until the end of this month, but that is now not that far away.
So, sadly for many people, financially things will get worse before they get better.
Also bear in mind that many grants being offered by the government have also walked into the hands of people who should never have received them – some simply because the rules were complex and difficult to get right while accountants and financial advisers were swamped with calls from concerned clients asking for assistance.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak is already warning that the books have to be balanced, so tax rises will be on the way along with clawbacks and fines.
Yet while the scammers might be accelerating their actions because more of us are prepared to believe in a ‘get-rich-quick’ scheme when we are facing financial hardship, we have been warned about everything from emails promising millions of dollars being deposited in our bank accounts by total strangers to pension scams for years now.
The message just does not seem to be getting through. The question is, why not? We have all heard the old adage: ‘If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.’
Most of us will also have seen the adverts warning against pension scams on TV, read them in the paper or seen them online. So why do we see people falling victim, time after time?
Part of the issue is that many people find pensions either too complicated to understand, or too boring.
They are also a seemingly distant benefit that could be useful right now if only you could access it. Of course, this is against the rules if you are under 55, with a few exceptions.
Step in a scammer who will make this happen, leaving victims with little to no retirement income despite years of hard work and saving. Some people, but most certainly not all, will rely on advice from pension experts.
But if they do not research their adviser properly and check they are fully qualified and authorised, it leaves them open to dealing with those they believe are ‘experts’ who turn out to have little interest in helping their ‘client’ and more in helping themselves.
There are many IFAs working hard to help people with their pension plans, giving them regular guidance about how to keep their pension savings on track so they can enjoy their twilight years.
The danger is, when things go wrong, all advisers are tarred with the same brush unfairly, something rightly frustrating to good, hard-working and highly qualified advisers.
So, what can we do? Get people educated about personal finance at a much younger age? Yes, definitely.
But that does nothing to help those who are heading towards a financial abyss because they have lost their job now or are hurtling towards the time when they are going to be taking their pension.
Ideally, we need to make financial services more interesting and accessible for people, so they learn to protect themselves. But many people have tried to do this and failed. How we achieve that is one of the most difficult questions to answer.
Alison Steed is a freelance journalist
