As part of its ScamSmart campaign, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) told retirees to ensure they reject cold-calls, check the FCA warning list, and get impartial advice.
It said the new flexibilities, due to be introduced on 6 April, mean many people will be making vital decision about their retirement, leading fraudsters to offer unregulated investments with high returns.
Recent research conducted by YouGov for Old Mutual Wealth shows that 15% of people aged 55 and over have been contacted about their pension over the last year with an offer of a free review or of some kind of financial access to their pension savings.
Martin Wheatley, chief executive at the FCA, said: “The new pension flexibilities will offer people the freedom to make choices that suit their plans for retirement.
“But this is exactly the time when people need to be alert to the dangers of scammers offering opportunities that are too good to be true.”
Adrian Walker, pension analyst at Old Mutual Wealth, said: “The new pensions freedoms will signal open season for scammers.
“15% of people aged 55 and over have already received unsolicited contact about their pension savings and over half of those have been via a phone call. These number will undoubtedly increase when the pension freedoms kick in and people need to be on guard.
“[The FCA’s campaign] is a sensible initiative but the key here is to get impartial advice before taking any action. There are plenty of good authorised financial advisers out there who can save people from making costly wrong decisions about their pensions savings.”
