Our Top 5 Tips to keep your Pension Pot Safe
- Ignore cold calls, texts and emails
- Never share sensitive information over the phone, text, via email or social media
- Be aware of what personal information and images you share online. Consider updating your settings on social media sites to ‘private’ and don’t post voice content
- To help suss out deep fakes (images, videos, or audio which are edited or generated using artificial intelligence tools, and which may depict real or non-existent people) look out for spelling mistakes on official documents, floating hands or limbs in the imagery and if the image looks too perfect, it probably is
- If you’re thinking about changing your pension arrangements, you should get financial advice beforehand. Find out more about getting advice.
You can Report any activity that seems suspicious to Action Fraud. When it comes to your finances, it really is better to be safe than sorry – https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/reporting-fraud-and-cyber-crime
Pension Scams
Scams can be difficult to spot. Fraudsters can be convincing and knowledgeable. Don’t let scammers enjoy a pension saver’s retirement. Find out the warning signs of a scam and how you can stop being scammed.
Top 3 scams to watch out for:
1. Early pension release
If you’re offered help to release cash from your pension before age 55, it’s almost certainly a scam.
What to look out for:
You will be offered to access your pension early. The scammer may use phrases like ‘pension liberation’ or a ‘pension loan’. They often claim you can borrow money from your pension fund. If you take up this offer, your pension funds may be transferred into a scheme set up by the scammer, which will often be based abroad, or it’s simply stolen outright.
2. Free pension review
You’ve be contacted unexpectedly and offered a free review of your pension savings and investment returns. Professional pension advice is not free so this is most likely a scam.
What to look out for:
Free pension reviews are designed to persuade you to move money from your pension pot into a high-risk scheme. Your pension pot is then invested into unusual investments or businesses you may not be familiar with. You may be promised guaranteed returns to tempt you to take up these offers. Some of these investments are badly run, or an outright scam. As they’re promoted as long-term pension investments, it could be several years before you realise something is wrong.
3. Artificial Intelligence
(AI) – A new route for scammers: With AI technology evolving all the time it’s a great tool for cyber criminals and scammers.
What to look out for:
Deepfakes and voice cloning. Deepfakes use images or videos to impersonate trusted public figures which seem real. Voice cloning is now being used by fraudsters to impersonate family members in an emergency or other circumstances. As these methods are convincing and seem like a real person the best defence is to never share sensitive information over the phone, text, via email or social media.
