You spend decades building a pension. A scammer only needs to influence what happens next: a transfer, a withdrawal, a change of bank details.
The approach may look like helpful retirement advice. It may arrive as an urgent warning that your money is at risk. In other cases, the criminal tries to access your pension without involving you at all.
Pension scams exploit both trust and access. Understanding the difference matters, because protecting retirement savings means checking who is giving the instruction and why the money is moving.
Why retirement savings attract scammers
A pension holds money intended to support years of future life. Moving it can involve unfamiliar decisions about providers, investments, access rules and tax. That creates opportunities for someone offering a convincing explanation and an apparently easy solution.
The useful question is not simply whether an offer sounds attractive. It is whether you can independently establish who is behind it, what they are authorised to do and where your money would go.
How pension scams reach your retirement savings
A pension review becomes an investment pitch
Someone offers to assess your pension, then explains that your current arrangement is holding you back. A different investment supposedly offers stronger returns or an opportunity unavailable through ordinary providers.
The FCA identifies unexpected pension reviews, promises of guaranteed returns and unusual investments among the tactics used in pension scams. The apparent review can be a route to persuading you to move your savings.
Be particularly cautious when the person presenting the opportunity also controls the information you are allowed to see. You should be able to seek an independent opinion before making a decision.
A genuine firm's identity hides a fake adviser
A company name and regulatory reference number can look reassuring. Criminals can copy both.
The FCA calls this a clone firm scam. Fraudsters borrow the details of an authorised business while substituting their own website, email address or telephone number. Some even claim that the regulator's contact information is out of date.
Finding a real firm with the same name is therefore only part of the check. You also need to establish that you are communicating with that firm. Contact it through details you obtain independently from the FCA, rather than those supplied by the person approaching you.
Early access is sold as a financial shortcut
An offer to unlock a pension can be especially tempting when household bills or debts feel urgent. But calling a withdrawal a “loan” or a “loophole” does not make it legitimate.
Before taking action, speak directly to your provider. Someone selling early access should never be your only source of information about whether it is permitted.
A criminal impersonates the pension member
The Pensions Regulator has documented criminals accessing members' emails, gathering personal details and impersonating them to redirect pension funds. Its alert also describes fake pension accounts created in members' names.
In this type of attack, the criminal tries to convince the provider that they are you. Access to genuine correspondence can make that impersonation more convincing.
Treat an unexpected account-change notification as a reason to contact your provider through a trusted route. Ask it to check the activity, even if you have not yet noticed a missing payment. Protecting your inbox also helps protect the information used to administer your pension.
Money is targeted after a legitimate withdrawal
Retirement savings remain vulnerable after they reach your bank account.
A fraudster might claim to work for a bank's fraud team and insist that you move money to a “safe account”. MoneyHelper warns that banks, police and regulators do not ask people to protect their money this way.
In these situations, the account holder may personally approve the payment. The fraud lies in the story that persuaded them to do so.
That is a crucial distinction: a transaction can come from the genuine saver and still serve a scammer's interests.
Before moving your pension, make these checks
Check the firm's permissions. Use the Firm Checker to establish whether the business is authorised and has permission for the service being offered. An entry is not a blanket endorsement of every product or transaction.
Verify the contact, not just the company name. Match the contact details against the FCA's information and use that independent route to speak to the business. A convincing website or copied reference number cannot establish who is actually communicating with you.
Give yourself room to decide. Ask for a written explanation of the destination, charges, risks and consequences of moving your money. Treat pressure to sign before you can obtain independent guidance as a reason to stop.
Ask your existing provider about the request. Explain how the opportunity arose, including who first contacted you. That context may matter as much as the transfer paperwork.
Strengthen account security. Enable two-step verification where available, particularly for your email and pension accounts. Keep your contact details current so your provider can reach you about activity that needs checking. These are safeguards recommended by The Pensions Regulator.
You do not need to prove that someone is a criminal before ending a conversation or delaying a financial decision.
What to do if you suspect a pension scam
Contact your pension provider immediately. Explain what happened and ask whether a pending transfer or account change can be stopped. MoneyHelper advises acting quickly because a transfer that has not yet happened may still be preventable.
Contact your bank if bank details or payments are involved. Use its official app or a trusted telephone number. Tell the bank if you have already sent money or shared financial information.
Keep the evidence. Retain messages, emails, payment details, website addresses and a timeline of the contact. Stop communicating with the suspected scammer while you seek help.
Report the incident. Report the scam to the relevant authorities as soon as possible. In the UK, this means reporting fraud to Action Fraud (or Police Scotland via 101) and notifying the relevant authorities if the scam involves a pension or financial service. Reporting quickly can help authorities identify fraudulent activity and may support efforts to recover lost funds.
Be cautious about anyone who subsequently offers to recover your money for a fee. MoneyHelper warns that people who have already lost money can be targeted again by fraudulent recovery services.
What pension providers should check before money moves
For providers, the distinction between impersonation and manipulation points to three separate questions:
- Is the person making the request the genuine pension member?
- Is the destination legitimate and appropriate for the proposed transaction?
- Is the member acting on accurate information, without pressure or deception?
Each question requires different evidence. The framework below translates this distinction into practical checks. It is a suggested approach to control design, not an exhaustive regulatory checklist.
These checks address different points of failure. They work best as connected parts of a broader review, with concerns escalated for human assessment.
Recheck identity at sensitive moments
A useful control is to increase verification when a member requests a sensitive change, such as account recovery or a change to payout details. The Pensions Regulator specifically urges schemes to review their identity and verification checks in response to impersonation fraud.
Biometric liveness detection and face matching can support this process, but they perform different functions. Liveness assesses whether a genuine person is present during the capture, while face matching compares that person with a trusted identity reference.
Identomat offers a comprehensive suite of IDV and KYC solutions, including Identity Verification, iBeta Level 2-certified Liveness Check, Face Matching, AML Screening, and more. These solutions can help pension providers detect, flag, and prevent fraudulent activity at sensitive points in the customer journey.
Protecting pension savings starts with knowing who is really behind the request
Pension fraud is not always about a suspicious investment or an obviously fraudulent transfer. Sometimes, the most difficult question is simply whether the person making the request is genuinely the pension member - and whether the request should be trusted.
For pension providers, this means identity verification needs to extend beyond initial onboarding. Account recovery, changes to personal or payout details, withdrawals and other high-risk actions can all become targets for impersonation and fraud.
A layered approach can help providers strengthen these points of vulnerability. Identomat brings identity verification, liveness detection, face matching and AML screening together in a single platform, allowing providers to apply stronger checks when the risk calls for them.
Used as part of a broader fraud prevention framework, these controls can help providers verify that a real person is present, confirm that they match a trusted identity, and identify potential financial crime risks before a sensitive request is completed.
Because protecting retirement savings is not only about checking where the money is going. It starts with checking who is asking for it.
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Frequently asked questions
What is a pension scam?
A pension scam is a type of fraud designed to persuade someone to transfer, withdraw or otherwise give up control of their retirement savings. Scammers may pose as financial advisers, legitimate companies, pension providers or other trusted organisations and use investment opportunities, urgent requests or false information to influence the victim.
How do pension scammers target retirement savings?
Scammers can target pension savings in several ways, including fake investment opportunities, clone firms, promises of early pension access, impersonation of pension providers or members, and fraud involving bank accounts after a legitimate withdrawal. Some attacks rely on persuading the pension saver to authorise a transaction, while others attempt to access accounts and act in the member’s name.
Can someone steal a pension by impersonating the pension member?
Yes. Criminals can obtain personal information or access email accounts and use it to impersonate a pension member. They may then attempt to change account details, redirect payments or request other sensitive actions. The Pensions Regulator has warned pension schemes about the risk of criminals impersonating members and recommends reviewing identity and verification controls.
