Pension Cold Calling Scammers

The Tonight programme “How Safe is My Pension” aired on Thursday 4th May.  An undercover “sting” exposed the operation of a pension cold calling scam.

IFA Darren Cooke of Red Circle Financial Planning featured in the programme and spoke passionately about the dangers of cold calling.  He ran a successful petition to campaign for a ban on cold calling.  This attracted thousands of signatures in a short space of time and earned him widespread praise and respect from the financial services industry.  Hopefully, after the election, whatever government we end up with will get back to the serious business of cleaning up the pension scamming industry and putting the scammers where they belong – behind bars.

WHAT MORE COULD THE PROGRAMME HAVE TOLD VIEWERS ABOUT PENSION SCAMS?

However, while one victim’s tragic circumstances were highlighted, I think the programme could have done more to feature the extent of pension scams; how many there have been during the past seven years; how much has been lost (many £ billions); how many people’s lives have been ruined; how many scammers there are in the UK and offshore and how many £ millions they have earned out of ruining victims’ lives.

The programme also missed two important regulation failings – cold calls are facilitated by the illegal sale of personal data – almost no victims understand this.  Also, the promotion of unregulated investments to ordinary savers is an offence. A country that can’t enforce its own laws is a failing state.  And enforcement takes far too long: it took the Pensions Regulator four years to take action to disqualify the shysters behind the 5G Futures pension scam – and there is still no news about them being prosecuted for scamming hundreds of victims out of £16 million worth of pensions which were invested in a plantation in Fiji.  This despite the Pensions Regulator’s Lesley Titcomb clearly stating that scammers are criminals.

The whole purpose of Darren Cooke’s cold calling ban petition was to draw attention to the enormity of the pension scamming industry and get the government to finally take some action.  The regulators and the police have failed dismally to tackle the problem and address the point that the scammers are left free to operate scams over and over again.  The public need to know just how prolific the scams and scammers are.

But this is the most tragic issue of all.  Serial scammers train and coach the next generation.  They teach the new boys the tricks of this filthy trade and then more scams spring up like rabbits on viagra.  The regulators and the police stand by and let the scammers just get on with their next lucrative operation.  And this is what must change – once and for all.  The victims need protection for the damage already done to them.  And new victims have to be warned of the dangers posed by the pension cold calling scammers as well as the introducers, administrators, promoters, distributors and trustees of various scams operating in the UK and offshore.