London, 7 May 2020: Scam Man & Robbin’, the new online game that aims to tackle the rapid increase in pension scams, has been played over 1,000 times since its launch last week.
Created by four of the UK’s leading digital pension platforms - PensionBee, AgeWage, Smart Pension and Nutmeg, alongside technology partner JMAN Group - Scam Man & Robbin’ aims to educate consumers about pension scams in response to a spike in online fraud.
Between Wednesday 29 April and Tuesday 5 May Scam Man & Robbin’ was played a total of 1,071 times, raising awareness of the types of scams proliferating today and ways to avoid them.
The game can be played on mobile phones and computers, and is designed for consumers of all ages. It casts the player as a vigilante whose objective is to identify and destroy potential scams to protect people’s pension pots, and includes a new coronavirus-related scam that has been prevalent in recent weeks.
The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) first noted the new trend for coronavirus fraud in February, which had increased four-fold by the first half of March to over one hundred reports (1). Since then, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has revealed it has already taken down 2,000 online scams in mid-April - including 200 phishing sites seeking personal information such as passwords or credit card details and 832 advance-fee frauds where a large sum of money is promised in return for a set-up payment (2).
Earlier this week Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab warned that “predatory cyber criminals and hostile states are seeking to exploit the coronavirus pandemic”, by targeting individuals and organisations in the UK by deploying Covid-19 related scams and phishing emails. This follows the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) publishing a joint warning on Tuesday (3).
To find out more and to play Scam Man & Robbin’, visit scam-man.com.
Romi Savova, Chief Executive of PensionBee, said: “Let’s face it, people don’t tend to associate pensions with gaming. But as online fraud continues to rise, particularly during this time of economic uncertainty, it’s essential that the pensions industry comes together to find innovative ways to educate consumers about scams. We’re thrilled to see so many people playing Scam Man & Robbin’ in the week since launch, and hope it will continue to make a genuine difference to people’s understanding of fraud. We are taking a stand; we are playing the scammers at their own game.”
