Pensions expert and founder of Pension Playpen, Henry Tapper, said adverts were already appearing on Google about final salary pension transfers that catered specifically for Carillion pension members.
He said: "This might seem dodgy to the trained eye, but it looks pretty plausible if you are a Carillion employee who has just lost your job and suspect you might lose your pension."
Industry body Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA), has called on financial services regulators to take swift action to stop a repeat of the British Steel debacle, which saw unregulated introducers attempting to get members to transfer their retirement pots by offering them chicken dinners.
The defined benefit (DB) pension schemes of Carillion, one of the UK government's biggest contractors, will enter the Pension Protection Fund (PPF).
Carillion has 13 final salary schemes in the UK with more than 28,500 members, and a deficit of £587m at the end of July.
Following the collapse of Carillion, we have already seen warning signs that scammers may be seeking to exploit DB scheme members' fears about their future.Joe DabrowskiAfter unsuccessful talks with its lenders and the UK government, Carillion made an application yesterday (15 January) to the High Court for compulsory liquidation.
The accountancy firm PWC has been appointed as administrator.
Around 15,500 of the Carillion scheme members are deferred, which means they could transfer out their pension pots if a transfer request is put in time before the pension fund enters the PPF.
Seven pension funds have already entered a period of assessment at the pensions lifeboat, which have around 5,900 members, a spokesperson at the PPF said.
According to Joe Dabrowski, head of governance and investment at the PLSA, one in six pension holders in the UK have been contacted by a company – other than their provider – to discuss making changes or transferring their pension, which is why swift action is needed with Carillion.
He said: "Following the collapse of Carillion, we have already seen warning signs that scammers may be seeking to exploit DB scheme members' fears about their future.
"We call upon regulators to act urgently to ensure that members are protected, and to take the strongest possible action against unscrupulous companies looking to take advantage of savers.
"Transfers should only be undertaken if they are in the best interest of the scheme member and with the right level of guidance."
Following the introduction of pension freedoms in 2015, the volume of defined benefit pension transfers has been soaring, as savers seek to take advantage of sky-high transfer values and to move their nest eggs into defined contribution schemes in order to access their cash.
Figures published by Mercer in April showed as much as £50bn has been pulled from final salary pension schemes in the past two years.
Darren Cooke, chartered financial planner at Derbyshire-based Red Circle Financial Planning, has also seen these advertisements.
He said: "Some of the ones I have seen are originated in off-shore companies. Some (adverts are) from the UK as well.
"The problem with these is that when the schemes go into the PPF transfers are suspended anyway. Some of the scaremongering that we see around the PPF is pathetic."
Since not all members have been transferred to the PPF, scammers might be trying to target those who still have a transfer option.
Mr Cooke said: "They might be using the scare tactic on these ones, for them to transfer before going into the PPF, but to be honest you would need to be very fast.
"The transfers would have to be completed before the pension scheme goes into the PPF, so you need to be quick."
However, Mr Cooke is optimistic that the scheme trustees are extra careful if they get pension transfer requests.
He said: "Hopefully that is the one lesson we have learned from the British Steel Pension Scheme fiasco."
Steelworkers had until 22 December to decide whether to move their DB pension pots to a new plan being created, BSPS II, or stay in the current fund, which will be moved to the PPF.
The scheme has about 130,000 members of which 43,000 are deferred, which means transferring out of their pension is an option for them.
FTAdviser reported in November that several steelworkers appeared to be transferring out their pensions after being lured by cheap deals by unregulated introducer firm Celtic Wealth Management & Financial Planning, which then referred the clients to advice firm Active Wealth.
The Work & Pensions select committee, which held hearings with steelworkers, financial advisers and regulators amid concerns about the financial advice being given to the members, will publish a specific report on this case early this year.
Following intervention from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), eight firms have decided to stop providing advice on pension transfers.
Carillion, which employs about 43,000 people, has been struggling for several months, issuing a profit warning last year that sank its share price – which has fallen from more than £2 a year ago to about 14.2p yesterday (15 January).
Yesterday Liberal Democrat MP Stephen Lloyd submitted a motion in Parliament calling for an inquiry into collapsed Carillion.
maria.espadinha@ft.com
