Pension savers considering a pension transfer can use Help & Advice’s free Pension Scam Predictor to check the potential of being exposed to a pension scam, as the number of fraudsters operating scams continues to grow.
Past pension losses have ranged from £1,000 to £500,000, but the cost of living crisis has the potential to exacerbate the situation as people struggling with rising costs look to access their pensions.
The Pension Scam Predictor, which has been updated and relaunched by Help & Advice, asks a series of straightforward questions relating to the tactics that a pension scammer might use to coerce them into transferring their pension. Once complete, the Pension Scam Predictor displays a likelihood of the pension transfer being a scam, listing the red flags and explanations.
Users are then instructed to either stop doing anything with the transfer, contact the adviser to get answers to the questions raised by the red flags and contact the pension company, pension administrator, employer or trustee to stop any further transfer payment and help determine whether the pension is being transferred to a legitimate pension schemes; report to the FCA; or report to Action Fraud.
Saq Hussain, founder of People-tech, said: “The cost-of-living crisis will inevitably lead to an increasing number of people becoming vulnerable to pension scammers and we want to do what we can to help protect them. The Help & Advice Pension Scam Predictor is free, simple and easy to use and provides a sense check, raising warning flags based on their answers to a range of questions, with clear signposts about what to do next.”
