Tricks ruthless scammers use to steal your pension revealed on the This is Money podcast – would you fall victim?

This is Money Podcast

This is Money

Business News, Business, Investing, News

4.1 • 650 Ratings

🗓️ 9 August 2019

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

If you think you're too savvy to fall victim to a pension scam - or any scam for that matter - you might want to think again.

Almost half of 45-65 year olds would potentially fall victim to six common tactics used by fraudsters, Financial Conduct Authority research claims.

Editor Simon Lambert, assistant editor Lee Boyce and host Georgie Frost take a look, as it's revealed the average victim loses £82,000.

A psychologist also reveals five common tricks used by scammers to get you to part with your cash, whether it is pension-related or not.

Elsewhere, we reveal how one reader was facing his house sale falling through thanks to a little known Cifas fraud marker being attached to his name via telecoms giant Sky.

We teach you how to complain properly, as we aim to arm listeners with the knowledge they need to take on big firms when they do something wrong.

The RAC launches a new insurance that could beat the car rental rip-off and the AA warns about keeping on the right side of the French driving law.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is money in partnership with Switch, saving you time and money by automatically switching your energy provider whenever a better deal comes along.
0:09.3	I'm Georgie Frost and joining editor Simon Lambert and I today is Assistant Editor Lee Boyce.
0:14.8	And coming up, think you too savvy to fall victim to a pension scam?
0:19.5	Well, think again, the regulator reckons millions of us
0:22.4	are at risk of falling prey to even the most basic cons. So this is money, have employed the
0:27.8	services of a psychologist to get into the mind of a fraudster. Also today, we look at when fraud
0:33.9	alerts go very wrong. We teach you how to complain properly,
0:38.0	how to beat the car rental rip-off,
0:39.9	and how to keep on the right side of the French driving norm.
0:43.7	Don't forget you stay up to date with all the latest breaking money news.
0:46.7	Just go to this ismoney.com.com.
0:49.3	Or download the app.
0:51.3	But first, every day, it seems seems we read another horrible story about someone
0:55.9	being scammed out of their hard-earned cash. But of course, it won't be you next, will it?
1:02.6	You know how to spot a scam. Are you sure about that? Well, the financial regulator has been
1:07.5	doing a little bit of research to figure out just how vulnerable pension holders in particular are and the findings do not make for happy reading. Almost half of the 45 to
1:17.5	65 year olds that they spoke to would probably fall victim to six common tactics used by fraudsters.
1:25.3	That works out at about 5 million people. And those who describe themselves
1:30.3	as smart or financially savvy, yep, you are just as likely to get it wrong. So, Lee, the scamman,
1:39.3	Boyce. Tell us more about this. What we've got in this story from the SEA, people are now over 55s, are able to access
1:48.5	their pensions and what that has created is almost a little cottage industry or forsters
1:53.0	targeting people who have large sums of money saved up.
	...

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