Spam text messages from pension liberation firms have dropped off by almost 80 per cent following police arrests earlier in the year.
The number of spam text messages offering "pensions liberation" fell by almost 80% after police arrested three men and seized computers and documents on May 8th 2013.
The arrests were triggered after a number of reports to Action Fraud of victims losing their pensions after having been persuaded by the promise of better returns and tax free advances to release their savings.
Large drop in spam texts
Andrew Conway of Cloudmark, an American anti-spam company said "The drop-off happened on May 9, which was the day that police raided pension liberation boiler room operations in England and made multiple arrests. In fact we saw a 78% reduction in pension liberation SMS spam from the 30 days before the arrests to the 30 days after."
HRMC to de-register schemes
HM Revenue & Customs is set to de-register up to 500 pension liberation schemes as part of an initiative known as Project Bloom. They will be reviewing its registration procedures for providers and will shortly be deregulating 400 to 500 dubious providers.
For further information please visit the Financial Conduct Authority website.
Please note that Action Fraud is not responsible for the content of external websites.
To report a fraud and receive a police crime reference number, call Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 or use our online fraud reporting tool.
Related links
Pension liberation scams
Multi-agency operation acts on pension liberation fraud
