“We’re pleased the Chancellor has committed to a consultation banning cold calling before the end of the year. Perhaps the most valuable aspect of a ban would be the awareness that it will bring to consumers, people should not be phoning them out of the blue about their pension. The true extent of pension fraud is unknown, and some people may not realise they have fallen victim to a scam for some time. Once a scam has taken place it’s almost impossible to get the money back.
The proposed ban on cold calling is a major step forward but we hope the consultation gives room to tackle related frauds via texts and emails which are other common techniques used to try to part people from their hard-earned cash. Scams are constantly evolving as soon as you remove one fraud method, another variant on the old scheme pops up. A ban on cold calling won't be foolproof, but at least it will put more people on their guard and criminalise those who make the calls.
People should remember the old adage, if something looks too good to be true it probably is.
“Fraudsters try to groom their victims making it difficult for providers to raise concerns with their customers about suspicious transfers or tipping off the fraudster. Giving providers more powers to block suspicious transfers is something we've long-called for and will protect customers from future scams, but the devil will be in the detail.”
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