The long-awaited ban on pensions cold-calling has finally come into force

On 9th January 2019 the cold-calling of savers about anything to do with their pensions finally became illegal. The new law doesn’t just cover phone calls, but also includes any unsolicited emails or text messages about your pension.

Now that the ban is in place, you can be sure that any out-of-the-blue call about your retirement savings is definitely a scam and against the law.

Pension freedoms legislation introduced in 2015 is widely cited as the reason for the alarming increase in pension fraud over the last few years. Scammers seizing on the flexibility these rules provide, highlighted access to retirement savings, to get unsuspecting individuals to transfer their cash.

Pension fraud victims lost ￡23 million in the last year alone, up ￡9.2 million from the year before. The real amount could be even higher as only a minority of victims report being scammed, too embarrassed to disclose what has happened to them.

From now on, when you put the phone down on would-be pension scammers, you can tell them that they have broken the law just by contacting you.

If you suspect you have been victim, you should report the scam or fraud to Action Fraud as soon as you can. They will pass the information to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau who will analyse the case to find viable lines of enquiry.