How to spot and report pension scams in the UK

What’s a pension scam?

Scams are an illegal and dishonest plot to steal from or commit fraud against a victim. Anyone could become the target of a scammer. You may’ve been targeted before, perhaps by a cold call, scam text, or suspicious email.

Pension scams involve specifically going after your retirement savings.

Scammers commonly use ‘phishing’. This involves scammers calling, emailing, or texting people posing as an organisation - often a financial company. 

In answering their questions, you may reveal your personal details. Scammers then use this information to attempt to access your pension and commit fraud.

Who are the typical victims of scams?

Everyone’s a potential scam victim. However, while scammers can - and do - target anyone, they’ll also be selective. 

They might go after those who are thought to be less confident with technology. Or it could be individuals who have more available money, such as retired people.  

For example, data shows that those over 60 are most likely to come forward after having been scammed. 

Fraudsters might target this cohort specifically because of a perceived vulnerability. Or it could be that being older makes you more likely to have larger savings and pensions.

What types of pension scams are there?

Fraudsters take various approaches to persuade victims to part with their money. 

Most scams begin with contact out of the blue. That might be an email, letter, phone call, text, or social media message. 

After this, there are various types of scams that fraudsters might run to try and access your pension. Some of the most common are:

• annuity scams;
• early pension release scams; and
• pension review scams.

Read our guide to the most common pension scams in the UK to learn more.

How to spot and avoid pension scams

Familiarising yourself with what scams look like may stop you falling for one. 

Here are a few things to look out for.

Suspicious messages

Scammers often contact people out of the blue via text, email, or social media.

It’s important to ignore suspicious messages. Unless you’re 100% that a message is legitimate, you shouldn’t:

• reply;
• click any links;
• press any buttons; or
• share personal or financial details.

By ignoring unexpected contact, you can improve your chances of avoiding even a sophisticated scam.

Payment methods you’ve not heard of

As fraud’s a criminal activity, scammers may ask you to pay them through unusual methods. Otherwise, your bank building society, pension provider’s systems will likely spot suspicious activity. 

That might be buying gift cards that scammers can redeem, or paying in cryptocurrencies that are hard to trace back.

When you’re being asked to make payments via an unusual or uncommon method, think twice. 

If your bank account is hacked, you may be able to retrieve some or all of your stolen money. But paying through these irregular methods makes it harder to recover.

Unrealistic investment returns and big promises

Scammers might suggest they can achieve very high investment returns. Or they might make big promises, such as giving you a way to access your pension early or completely tax-free.

These offers are rarely accurate. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Pretending to be authorised

Scammers often pose as trusted businesses, organisations, or people. That might be a letter from HMRC, a text from your bank, or even a social media message from a friend. 

However, before you act, it’s a good idea to fact check those details.

If you receive a letter, call, or message from someone asking for money, stop and ask yourself: does this feel right?

You can double-check email addresses and phone numbers online. Or get in touch with whoever’s claiming to contact you via your usual method. 

Poor spelling and grammar

To hide their real identity, scammers might use big brand names with small typos. 

For example, www.penionbee.com looks like PensionBee’s website. But on close inspection, it isn’t. 

Scammers use such tactics to pose as legitimate companies or organisations to convince you they’re trustworthy.

Scam messages are also frequently misspelt or phrased awkwardly. Looking at the spelling and grammar can give you key clues to whether it’s an official message, or an attempt to part you with your wealth.

Personal information requests

Scammers may ask simple questions to gain enough knowledge to commit fraud. That might be financial information, or it could be as basic as your: 

• address
• phone number; or 
• birthday. 

Those bits of information could all be used to break into your accounts. Even clicking on a rogue link could reveal those details to a fraudster.

Keep your bank details and personal information private, especially when you don’t know who you’re speaking to.

Being forced into a quick decision

Scammers might create an artificial time pressure to get you to act rashly. They want you to make a decision, like transferring money or giving up key information, before you’ve had a chance to properly think it through.

These urgency tactics might involve telling you that you’ll lose out on an offer if you don’t do something right away.

Or it might be scare or pressure tactics, telling you that your money’s at risk unless you act quickly.

Real financial companies are highly unlikely to ever do this. If there’s time pressure, take a moment before you do anything. If the person you’re speaking to is legitimate, they’ll understand and allow you to take your time.

Confusing contact details

Many fraudsters don’t have a legitimate place of business. And, because they’re often posing as real companies, they can’t have you sending things to a physical address or calling a trusted number.

That’s why they’ll often have strange and confusing contact details. Their address might be a PO box, rather than a location.

Likewise, they might contact you via a mobile number, rather than a business number.

If you’re unsure, always look up the real address or number of who you’re supposedly speaking to and use that instead.

How to report a pension scam

While you’ll hopefully never be the victim of a scam, it could happen. As a result, it’s important to know how to report one.

The first thing to do is contact Report Fraud. Formerly known as Action Fraud, Report Fraud’s the service to tell the police about cybercrime and fraud. You can either make a report online or by phoning.

It’s also important to tell the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the UK’s financial regulator. They’ll be able to step in if the firm’s regulated and providing bad advice. Or they can work with other authorities to stop those scammers.

You can forward suspicious messages to 7726 to report it - that spells ‘SPAM’ on your phone keypad, so it’s easy to remember. You can also report suspicious emails as phishing (without opening them) in your email settings.

What to do if you’re being targeted now

Think you’re being targeted right now? Here’s what to do.

• Stop the line of communication immediately - whether it’s via email, text, or phone, cut off contact straight away.
• Contact your bank or financial provider - let your bank or financial provider know what’s happening. If you’ve given key information to the scammer, your provider can help protect your account. They might be able to freeze your account, cancel transactions, and potentially reimburse stolen money.
• Contact the police - call 101 if the scammer’s in your area or you’ve transferred money in the last 24 hours. If you’ve been threatened or feel in danger, call the police directly on 999. 
• Tell Report Fraud - while this might not help you recover your money, it could stop someone falling victim to the same scam in future.

What to do if you’ve been the victim of a pension scam in the past

If you’ve previously been scammed, you should still follow the steps above. However, whether you’ll be able to recover your money depends on what happened and how long ago it was.

Your bank or financial provider may not be able to recover money stolen historically. Even so, it’s worth gathering all the information about the fraud together and reporting it to them.

Similarly, it’s still important to contact Report Fraud. Having accurate information about scammers and the techniques they use can help protect more people, even if you can’t recover your money.

It’s also sensible to work out how the scammer accessed your wealth and update your details, such as passwords. That could secure your account from future attacks, which fraudsters may attempt if they’ve successfully scammed you in the past.

Support if you’ve been the victim of a scam

Even an attempted scam can feel scary, and the experience could leave you feeling anxious. 

Fortunately, you’re not alone. There’s lots of support and information available for scam victims.

Report Fraud’s Victim Services offers specialist help to victims of cybercrime or fraud. Likewise, Citizens Advice provides a directory of places you may be able to get support.

Your bank or financial company can also help. They might have a dedicated victim support team. Or they’ll point you in the direction of other services that provide guidance for scam victims.

Risk warning

As always with investments, your capital is at risk. The value of your investment can go down as well as up, and you may get back less than you invest. This information should not be regarded as financial advice.

Last edited: 05-08-2026