Protecting yourself from pension scams
Pension pots are a favourite target for fraudsters, for a simple reason: it's often the single largest sum of money someone has ever had in one place. The losses can be devastating and extremely hard to recover from, so knowing how these scams work is one of the most valuable things you can do to protect your retirement.
The scale of the problem
In 2024, victims lost £17.5 million to pension fraud across 519 reported cases — an average of around £34,000 each, according to Action Fraud, and many cases go unreported. What makes pension scams so damaging is the timing: victims are often close to or in retirement, with no realistic way to rebuild savings accumulated over a working lifetime. Anyone can be targeted, however financially experienced — scammers are highly professional, with polished websites, glowing testimonials, and increasingly convincing AI-generated messages and cloned sites.
Cold calling about pensions is illegal
Since January 2019, it has been against the law for firms to cold call people about their pension. So if you receive an unexpected call, text, email or social media message about your pension, that alone is a strong warning sign — legitimate organisations do not contact you out of the blue about your retirement savings. The safest response to any such approach is simply to end it.
The main types of pension scam
They come in a few recognisable shapes. Pension liberation promises access to your pension before age 55 (57 from 2028), which is only possible in rare circumstances such as serious ill health. Investment fraud steers you into unusual, unregulated or overseas investments — storage units, overseas property, car parks, forestry, green-energy projects — with promises of high, "guaranteed" returns. Clone firms impersonate genuine FCA-authorised companies, using a real firm's name and reference number but their own fake contact details. And recovery-room scams target people who've already been scammed, posing as authorities or lawyers who can recover the lost money — for an upfront fee.
Anatomy of a scam
It often follows a familiar pattern. An unexpected message — a call, a text, a slick social-media advert — offers a "free pension review" or a "guaranteed" high-return investment.
A friendly, professional-sounding adviser builds trust over a few conversations, then recommends moving your pension into a new scheme or an "exclusive" opportunity: an overseas hotel development, a green-energy project, a storage-unit scheme. There's gentle pressure to act before a "deadline".
Once the transfer completes, the promised returns never appear, the adviser becomes unreachable, and the money — often a lifetime's savings — is gone, and almost impossible to get back. The whole point of the design is to feel legitimate and unhurried right up until it's too late.
Warning signs to watch for
- An unexpected approach — by phone, text, email or social media — about your pension.
- Offers of a "free pension review", especially from a company you didn't contact.
- Promises of guaranteed high returns, or claims that an investment is "low risk" despite a high return.
- Talk of "pension liberation", loopholes, or accessing your pension early.
- Unusual, complex or overseas investments — storage units, overseas property, forestry, green energy.
- Pressure to act quickly, "time-limited" offers, or reluctance to let you take independent advice.
- Firms with no verifiable contact details, or only a mobile number or PO box.
The transfer safeguards that now protect you
Since November 2021, pension schemes have had real power to stop suspicious transfers. If certain risk indicators — "flags" — are present when you ask to move your pension, the scheme can act. A red flag (for example, evidence of a scam tactic like an unsolicited approach) lets the scheme refuse the transfer. An amber flag (such as high-risk or overseas investments in the receiving scheme) lets it pause the transfer until you've attended a free scam-guidance appointment with MoneyHelper. It's not a perfect system — the rules are being refined in 2026 to reduce delays for legitimate transfers — but if your provider raises a flag, treat it as a genuine prompt to stop and check, not a hoop to jump through.
How to protect yourself
Before making any decision about your pension, check that the firm is genuinely authorised on the FCA register — and use the contact details listed there, not the ones the firm gave you, which defeats the clone-firm trick. Check the FCA's Warning List of known scams. Never let yourself be rushed: a legitimate adviser will always give you time to think, seek a second opinion, or walk away. And take up the free, impartial guidance available — MoneyHelper for spotting scams, and Pension Wise for a free appointment if you're 50 or over and thinking about accessing your pension. The government's Stop! Think Fraud campaign is another good resource. If you're weighing up accessing your pension at all, our drawdown guide explains the legitimate routes.
If you think you've been targeted or scammed
Act fast. Contact your pension provider immediately — they may be able to halt a transfer that hasn't yet completed. Then report it to Action Fraud (now Report Fraud) on 0300 123 2040 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, or in Scotland, to the Police on 101. Be wary of anyone who then contacts you offering to recover your money for a fee. This is also a well-known scam aimed at vulnerable victims who sometimes lose much more money trying to recover their initial losses. And don't be embarrassed to report it: these frauds are specifically engineered to be convincing, and reporting quickly gives you the best chance of limiting the damage and helping protect others.
FCA — ScamSmart & Warning List
MoneyHelper — How to spot a pension scam
The Pensions Regulator — Pension scams
Action Fraud — Report a scam