Mastertrust Trustees sign up to the Pension Scams Pledge

It is sounds too good to be true...it probably is. Please stay vigilant when it comes to protecting your pension against scammers.

We’ve recently undertaken additional training as a Trustee Board to increase our awareness around scams in the pensions industry and how we can help to protect our members. Our Board is proud to have joined Legal & General in signing up to The Pension Regulator’s Pension Scams Pledge. This adheres to the Pension Scams Industry Group’s code of best practice for protecting members against scams.

Scams are often smart, sophisticated and hard to spot. To help you protect yourself we ask you to consider the following information.

• Your financial information and secure login details are valuable, so don’t share them with anyone – even if they’re claiming to be Legal & General. They'll never ask you to tell them these.
• Choose passwords you can remember easily instead of writing them down.
• Scams usually start with someone getting in touch out of the blue. An email, a phone call or text message you weren’t expecting can be convincing, but stay wary and hang up or don’t reply. If you’re at all concerned, you should contact your provider.
• Don’t click links or open emails unless you’re confident the email is really from a sender you know.
• If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Stay sceptical.
• Scammers often try to put pressure on you to make quick decisions. Always take your time to check things out before going ahead.
• Legal & General will never ask you to move money to a ‘safe’ account, so if someone contacts you asking you to do this, it’s a scam.
• Scammers take advantage of current events to steal, so check a trusted source, like the MoneyHelper, regularly to stay a step ahead of the latest scams. Right now, look out for people and organisations you don’t know asking for contributions towards COVID-19 relief.

As well as following the tips in the bullet points, you should:

• Check the contact details of anyone who gets in touch with the FCA’s Financial Services Register to make sure that you’re dealing with a genuine firm.
• Refuse to give out any of your personal, investment or pension details.

The types of scams people might try if you have a pension

Scam tactics often include contact out of the blue, promises of high/guaranteed returns, free pension reviews, early access to your pension and pressure to act quickly.

For more information about pension and investment scams, visit the FCA’s ScamSmart website and their dedicated pension scams page.

Stay a step ahead of cost-of-living scams

With some people considering withdrawing pension funds to help them cover the cost of living, access to larger sums of money can make them vulnerable targets. You can find out more about how fraudsters are taking advantage of the cost-of-living crisis to scam people by reading the FCA’s specialist web page.

Help if you’ve been scammed

If the worst has happened, you can contact Action Fraud police for advice by calling 0300 123 2040 or visiting their website actionfraud.police.uk. You could also call the police directly by dialling 101.

The insured investments held in the Legal & General Mastertrust are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) so you could claim compensation from them in the unlikely event Legal & General isn’t able to fulfil its obligations under the policy.

The FSCS does not protect you from falls in value due to stock market volatility or currency fluctuations.

See your member’s booklet for more information or visit fscs.org.uk.