Investor 91 Asia

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10 | THE INVESTOR
IN YOUR INTEREST
£755m
INCREASE
ON 2014
IN 20151
26%
FINANCIAL FRAUD
LOSSES: CARD,
BANKING AND
CHEQUES
1 Offer a free pension
review or one-off
investment opportunity
2 Claim you can access
your pension pot before
the age of 55
3 Entice you with
upfront cash
4 Contact you out of the
blue via text, phone call
or home visit
TYPICAL APPROACHES
FROM PENSION
SCAMMERS8
£1.2bn4
ANNUAL LOSSES
TO INVESTMENT
SCAMS
1 March 2016
2 August 2016
3 , July 2016
4 , April 2015, 2016
5 , May 2016
6 June 2016
2015, which make it easier to access the
money in your pension pot, have sparked
a wave of frauds purporting to liberate
your pension but which are in fact
designed to milk you of your savings.
Citizens Advice estimated that almost
11 million unsolicited calls were made in
the rst year pension freedoms were
introduced5 – the author of the report
was contacted by someone claiming to be
from the PensionAdvice Service, a name
so close to the o cial PensionsAdvisory
Service that it could easily fool the unwary.
ActionFraud keeps a list of scams and
among the most common are investment
scams, which often start with an
unsolicited phone call and frequently
include an‘unmissable’ opportunity to
invest in wine, shares or property overseas.
Others include subscription traps, where
the victim is duped
into signing a
continuous payment
authority, often for
a free trial or free
subscription,
allowing the
fraudster to take
unlimited funds
from their bank account; computer
scams, usually initiated by a phone call
from someone claiming your computer
has a virus and o ering to x it for a fee;
vishing, the new term for phone scammers
impersonating a bank o cial, police o cer
or council o cial, using persuasive
tactics to make you disclose personal
details or transfer money; and phishing
emails purporting to be from a bank or
other o cial aimed at persuading you to
give up nancial and personal details.
Investment frauds often begin with a
phone call and the caller will be friendly,
plausible and well informed.They may
promise you a higher return on your
investment than is available through the
bank and lure you in with assurances that
your investment, and the returns, are
guaranteed. Such calls should always be
ignored – and the FCA’s own research
ndings make it clear why. It found that
47% of investment fraud victims who
bought fraudulent products did so
following an unsolicited phone call6.
The research also indicates a worrying
degree of trust among consumers.
Nearly half of those investing in
unregulated products through a rmwith
no authorisation to carry out nancial
business do so without taking
professional advice or checking the FCA
Warning List (or other publicly available
scam information).
The FCA’s advice is clear: reject
unsolicited calls, check its own warning
list and get impartial advice.‘If you’re
called about an investment opportunity,
the safest thing to do is hang up.’ It adds
that you should beware of devices that
callers use to fool you into thinking it is
not a cold call.‘They may refer to a
brochure or an email
that they have sent you.
That’s why it’s
important you know the
other tell-tale signs that
the “investment
opportunity” is likely to
be very risky or a scam.’
These include:
making contact unexpectedly about an
investment opportunity; pressure to
invest in a time-limited o er;
downplaying the risks to your money;
promising tempting returns that sound
too good to be true; calling repeatedly and
staying on the phone a long time; the
o er is only available to you; asking you not
to tell anyone about the opportunity.
The Pensions Regulator has a checklist
on its website for those tempted by calls
o ering a pension review, the chance to
unlock their pension or similar enticements.
Research indicates
aworrying degree
of trust among
consumers
Balance sheet Financial fraud has become
sophisticated so look out for tell-tale signs and take
professional financial advice.