Pension group Phoenix has said more of its customers are reporting approaches from unregulated companies after obtaining personal information or details about their pensions.
The group, which owns brands Axa, SunLife and Abbey Life, said it was not only the volume of approaches that was concerning, but the type of data being requested as well.
After conducting research among 2,000 people, it said one-in-ten consumers had provided their national insurance number to organisations they did not know and two-in-ten had given away their passport number.
One of Phoenix’ customers even reported a cold caller visiting their home to get copies of their driving license, national insurance numbers, bank statement and pension paperwork.
Power for fraudsters
The group found one-in-eight (12%) consumers had been targeted by fraudsters after they had unwittingly given their personal data away to them, which, when extrapolated, represents about 6.4 million people in the UK. It also said there were instances of scammers operating through fake online forms and phishing emails.
“Information is power for fraudsters,” warned Phoenix group head of financial crime prevention David Powers, adding that Financial Fraud Action UK reported fraud by internet, phone and mail order had increased 9% to £432.4m in 2016.
“The link between cold contacting and scams is very real, and fraudsters will mine the data that they collect from seemingly harmless calls, social media profiles or emails and text messages to scam their victims at a later date. Every piece of data – however big or small – allows the fraudster to build a more complete and accurate profile of their potential victim to make any approach feel genuine.”
Information given away freely
The firm found the information most freely given away was name and email address, followed by date of birth. One-third (35%) of people said they give their date of birth away on their Facebook profiles.
Worryingly, it reported 17% of people did not worry about fraud because they assumed their bank would cover any stolen money. One-in-eight (13%) said they were not concerned about giving away personal data.
In August the government announced it would introduce new measures to protect private pension savers from the threat of scammers, including a ban on calls, emails and text messages.
The ban will be enforced by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), although there is currently no set date for its enforcement.
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