ScamSmart pension transfer checks up 49%
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There has been a 49% increase in pension transfer checks on the Financial Conduct Authority’s ScamSmart website, with further searches relating to pension offers. Is the rise a sign that the website is working or that scammers are working harder?
ScamSmart: 2,500 pension-related searches in six months
New data from the FCA shows that checks on pension transfers increased from 1,075 to 1,603, making pension transfer offers the second most checked product on the website after cryptocurrency offers. ‘Taking money from my pension’ and ‘Free pension review’ were also searched for nearly 400 times each.
"Consumers need to have confidence when making investment decisions and the data we’ve published today shows how prevalent scams can be,” said Sarah Pritchard, executive director of markets at the FCA, urging consumers to check who they are really dealing with before making an investment.
This rise in pension offer searches on ScamSmart “suggests that the pension scam market is alive, well, and thriving”, said Laith Khalaf, head of investment analysis at platform provider AJ Bell.
In the six months between April and September last year, the work of the FCA’s pension scams unit meant that 14 firms varied their permissions, and asset restriction Voluntary Application for Imposition of Requirement were secured from nine firms. Just one firm was referred to enforcement by the team, despite 106 pension scam cases being opened in that period.
FCA stopped quarter of firms from entering consumer market
Khalaf observed that the fact the FCA has had to stop no less than a quarter of new firms trying ot enter the consumer investments market – an increase from one in five in the last financial year – “shows there are plenty of inadequate or inappropriate businesses attempting to sell their wares to UK investors”.
Almost one in five (19%) ScamSmart users reported hearing about potential scams through social media adverts, and 4% said they were directly approached on social media. “Scam activity is not new, but it does appear to be increasing in scale, and embracing new forms of digital communication,” he noted.
