Do you eat out now and again? Well this week, I have some spicy news for you, especially if you like your food on the hot side.
Customers of the piri piri chicken chain Nando’s reported a 'fake deals' website is sending them emails which claim that, as a Nando’s customer, you’ve been chosen from 50,000 subscribers to apply for the chance to become a ‘secret diner’. You receive a free meal voucher, with the only request that you review your experience on their website afterwards.
They say you can also win a Nando’s gift card, by following a link and filling out an online application form. It is believed that, at this stage, the con artists can steal any details you enter.
Contacting you online to capture your details is called “phishing”. (Not to be confused with ‘vishing’ - approaches by phone call, or ‘smishing’ - using SMS messages to trick you into downloading a virus to your phone or computer that will then collect your details.) The scams game is now so widespread it has donated its own vocabulary to the English language!
Even if we are not Nando’s customers, this is still relevant, because these same approaches are being used to target those of us with cash to invest, including funds drawn down from our pension.
Since April 2015, new flexibility in what we can do with our pensions has meant we can draw down slices of our lump sum to re-invest as we wish. This led to a sudden glut of people with wads of pension cash, looking for new ways to put that money to work.
Needless to say, in addition to legitimate offers from reputable providers, this sparked an epidemic of unscrupulous operators looking to make a fast buck, by preying on the new generation of wealthy pensioners. But you don’t have to be retired; if you’re 55 you are also a likely target, with offers of how to access your pension early.
This is why managing your money should only be done with the guidance of a professional financial adviser, rather than accepting unsolicited offers on your own. These conmen are so slick, and their marketing materials and websites so good, that they may well lure you in.
And before you say ‘they’d not catch me’, Citizens' Advice did a study which showed that in a test scenario, while over 70 per cent of people thought they’d be able to spot a bogus offer from the examples they were shown, only 12 per cent actually succeeded.
Action Fraud tell us that victims of investment scams lost on average £32,000 last year, through schemes encouraging them to invest their money in all kinds of scams including land overseas, share sales, even wine investments.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) identified an estimated 3.8 million cases of fraud and two million computer misuse offences in its latest annual figures, showing the overall crime rate could be double what was previously thought, particularly as many victims fail to report incidents.
One of the more common scams coming your way is a call, or a very professional glossy brochure, offering you a free ‘pensions review’. If you accept, an offer of some form of investment advice, or early access to your pension, will follow.
Victims are not told of the taxes or fees involved in these ‘opportunities’, and, in the case of overseas property investments, may invest in schemes that do not exist, or which are outside the control of the regulatory bodies in the UK.
And you don’t have to be approaching retirement to be a target.
High-profile victims of bogus investment scams have included soccer stars Rio Ferdinand and Andy Cole, who together with a raft of other players made investments estimated at £100m. One scheme involved a yacht berth development in Florida which had no access to the water, another was a film investment scheme, a third involved property in Spain.
Closer to home, we told you some time ago that even our own Gloria Hunniford lost £120,000 when fraudsters accessed her bank account without her knowledge. Imagine conning Gloria. Is nothing sacred?
It is, therefore, essential to work with a financial adviser if you are making any kind of investment of your savings or pension fund. This used to be a complex enough challenge, but today, due to the hordes of ‘investment vultures’ flying overhead, there is a real possibility that you may get burnt. And I don’t mean by eating that delicious piri piri chicken at Nando’s!
:: Michael Kennedy is an independent financial adviser and pensions specialist and can be contacted on 028 71886005. Facebook: Kennedy Independent Financial Advice Ltd
