Beware of Pension Scams: The next deadly scam of the era Overview of Pension Scams:
Picture this; you have been studying till your twenties with the dream of graduating and grabbing that dream job. You live happily in the cozy little house saving a part of your salary to use after retirement regularly. You dream about all the things you want to do with your pension money and invest in a scheme that promised double the amount as returns. One fine morning, you wake up to realize all the money is gone. Vanished!
I am sure none of you want this to happen and lose all of your hard-earned savings with one click. With the increased desperation of earning money illegally, scammers and cybercriminals are open to adopting any way to scam people and get money. One of the scams that have been happening for a while and have been successful in robbing people out of their retirement plans is PENSION SCAMS.
In this review, we will be covering everything from methods of Pension Scams to ways to avoid these Pension Scams. Read on to get further details about Pension Scams.
What is a Pension Scam?
A pension can be categorized as one of the most valuable assets that assure a safe and easy retirement life. This is collected over one’s working period and given back regularly after retirement. However, with the scammers adopting the latest methods and various tricks up their sleeves, most of the people end up getting scammed and get robbed of their pension.
The major problem that most of the victims face is that Pension Scams are often hard to differentiate from legitimate investment schemes. These pension scammers can take various forms and clone themselves as legitimate investment brokers. They convince innocent people into investing their money in and overseas with the fake promises of high returns. The reason behind these scammers pressurizing the traders to invest overseas is because they won’t be able to avail themselves of consumer protection outside of their country. These investments are usually done in the name of property, storage, and luxury products, etc. which are either very high risk or are completely made up.
How do Pension Scams work?
Pension Scammer works in a very convincing manner and manages to fool the tech-savvy people as well. They will contact you through cold calls, emails, or SMS with irresistible offers and huge returns for investment abroad. These investments often revolve around renewable energy bonds, overseas hotels, forestry, parking, hotels, etc. These scammers then try to convince the trader into transferring their entire pension funds or a portion of it to s single investment scheme. Putting one’s entire money in one investment scheme will only increase the chance of the trader incurring a loss. We urge our readers to always invest their money in different investment schemes rather than investing the whole amount in a single scheme. Another method that the scammers adopt is by providing fake promises of getting early access to their pension to the pension savers and take away all of their pension money.
Common Signs of a Pension Scam:
Although pension scams are considered a bit complicated, here are some of the common signs that tell of a pension scam:
- Getting approached unexpectedly
If you are randomly approached by a person claiming to be an investment broker through phone calls, emails, or in person, it is a sign of the person, and the organization that they are claiming to be a part of is a scam. While most scammers acquire phone numbers and email addresses from the dark web, the door-to-door marketing approach has been adopted recently to widen the spectrum of customers. - Offers too good to be true
When the broker convinces you with offers such as a high rate of returns, free reviews, or has mention of time-bound offers or one-time investments, it might be a scam. One must take extra care and take action immediately if the broker is pressurizing you to transfer all your funds in the name of a time-bound offer. All of these are just the scammers’ tactics and will only lead to your loss. - Legitimate Organizations in disguise
Another common method that successfully traps a lot of people is when scammers pretend to be legitimate organizations. In such scenarios, the scammers will make up schemes and words on the pretext of being a government organization and ask the pension saver to transfer all of their money into the fake scheme. - Cloned Website
The method of cloning a legitimate site or a firm is one of the most common methods that are spread across all the scamming societies. In such cases, the victim gets fooled by the legitimate-looking website and proceeds with the investment. Once they invest the money, the scammers pressurize them into putting in more money and deliberately make them incur a huge loss. - Absence of Contact
In order to avoid getting traced and caught by the government authorities, these scammers often do not give out information such as the names of the BoD, contact details, or the address of the firm. If you are not able to acquire a legit contact number or address, the organization is a complete scam. - Long Term Schemes
This is one of the favorites among the scammers as the victims, in this case, fail to realize that they are trapped in a scam for many years. In such cases, the scammers convince the pension savers to invest in a scheme that can only bear the result in a span of several years. They often do fake promises such as higher returns and better offers to convince the victims. Once the victim invests the money, these scammers leave without a trace and the victim only realizes this after several years after this pension scam.
How to Avoid Pension Scams?
One of the several ways to avoid a Pension Scam was by reading this review. Now that you have already done this, you are one step closer to a scam-free life. We urge our readers to stay extra cautious while dealing with investment brokers or schemes. One must always check for a legitimate license and research properly before investing your life earnings into a scheme.