Pension Scams
Don't let a scammer reap the benefits of your hard work by taking your pension.
Pension scams can range from criminal offences and regulatory breaches to legal but unethical behaviour. Scammers may aim to make money through fees, direct access to pension savings or by receiving investments. Common features of pension scams include attempts to gather information for future scams, false or unrealistic promises, and acting without the consent of a pension saver.
Where a scammer will obtain information from you about your pension to facilitate a longer scam which falsely offers greater returns on your investments.
Look out for phrases like ‘free pension review’, ‘pension liberation’, 'loan’, ‘loophole’, ‘savings advance’, ‘one-off investment’, ‘cashback’.
Also know as the pension liberation scam or pension loan, this scam is simply cashing in your pension early.
Taking money out of your pension if you’re under 55 is classed as an 'unauthorised payment'. That means you can be liable for a 55% rate of tax on the withdrawal, as well as charges from the pension liberation company of up to 30% of your withdrawal.
When a scammer poses as an intermediary figure in facilitating a pension transfer to a bogus or genuine pension fund but charges an excessive fee for their involvement.
Loopholes offered to help you get more that 25% of your pension savings tax free.
High pressure sales tactics – time limited offers to get the best deal; using couriers to send documents, who wait until they are signed.
Unusual high-risk investments, which tend to be overseas, unregulated, with no consumer protections.
Complicated and/or long-term investment structures.
Scammers will use bogus websites, emails and calls to trick you, make sure that any emails you receive regarding your Imperial pension are from the Imperial Pension Fund office and if you’re unsure just give us a call or an email regarding the correspondence and we will verify its validity
You should be suspicious of someone putting pressure on you to make important financial decisions quickly. If you feel you are being rushed, step away from the situation and remember that you owe the individual or company nothing.
We will never take your bank details over the phone so if asked hang up immediately and report the call to us
Do your research into any company that you choose or are approached by. Genuine companies and professionals should have traceable contact details such as an address rather than a PO box, only mobile phone numbers are a red flag also.
Please note that the Fund will look for signs of a pension scam when any transfer is requested.
To help prevent you from becoming the victim of a pension scam, we will carry out due diligence checks to ensure, as far as possible, the scheme you are transferring to is a registered pension scheme with HM Revenue and Customs. If we have any concerns regarding this, we will contact you directly and we may need to speak to you about our concerns.
In some circumstances if we are not satisfied with any information provided by you, your financial adviser or the receiving scheme we may not be able to proceed with the transfer or we may require you to seek guidance from the government’s MoneyHelper service.
Since 30 November 2021 trustees and scheme managers have a statutory obligation to ensure that specific checks are made as part of a due diligence process prior to carrying out a transfer on behalf of a member.
Should your request for a transfer raise concerns with the Fund then you will be advised to attend a safeguarding session to help identify common risks involved in transfers, highlight the dangers of pension scams and allow you to consider whether to proceed with their transfer.
Before starting to work with a financial adviser, transferring, or discussing your retirement savings make the most of the large amount of free resources available online to help guide you safely through managing your assets.
