Nearly two million people have been contacted by a potential pension scammer in the past three months, according to Retirement Advantage.
A poll of 1,005 people aged 50 plus by Censuswide at the end of June found one in five people (18 per cent), equating to 1.8 million people, have been offered unsolicited free pensions advice or investment opportunities by phone, text or email between April and June.
Andrew Tully, pensions technical director at Retirement Advantage, said: "The pension freedoms have opened the floodgates for scammers and con men to prey on people who are keen to access their pensions.
"These scammers are using increasingly sophisticated and convincing ways of trying to defraud large amounts of cash from people’s hard earned pensions and savings.
"Attempts by the industry and regulators to prevent scams is not preventing huge sums of money disappearing into the scammers pockets.
"My concern is the reported fraud and scams is only the tip of the iceberg as many people are unaware they’ve been conned or are too ashamed to come forward and report it."
These scammers are using increasingly sophisticated and convincing ways of trying to defraud large amounts of cash from people’s hard earned pensions and savings.Andrew TullyIFA Darren Cooke of Red Circle Planning has been campaigning to ban cold calling with the launch of a petition which attracted thousands of online supporters and led to a bill to ban cold calling.
The bill became a casualty of the general election.
He said he is disappointed the government has failed to push ahead with the ban of cold calling but added "anti-calling measures have not been shelved only delayed."
Mr Tully said: "We need to keep the pressure up to make sure this comes back onto the government agenda as soon as possible."
Yesterday (25 July) a report from Age UK revealed nearly five million older people have been targeted by scammers.
The charity has warned that older people are particularly at risk of being scams victims, with more than two-fifths saying they have been a target.
Research by the Money Advice Service backs up Age UK's findings and showed there could be as many as eight scam calls every second – the equivalent of 250 million calls per year.
stephanie.hawthorne@ft.com
