Fine wine and diamond fraudsters targeting Brits’ pension pots with bogus promises of high returns
Almost 40 per cent of over 55s were targets of high-risk investment scams in the past year
FINE wine, diamond and property scammers are targeting older Brits’ savings, watchdogs warn.
The Financial Conduct Authority says a quarter of over-55s are shifting nest eggs into unregulated high-risk investments.
Greater pensions access and low interest rates are luring some into scams such as the £200,000 fine wine fraud which saw an East London solicitor convicted last month.
A report from the City watchdog out today reveals 41 per cent of those quizzed in this age bracket have moved their money out of savings into investments.
Desperate Brits are turning more and more to ‘get rich quick’ schemes, after seven years of the Bank of England’s interest rate staying at a meagre 0.5 per cent, dreadful for savers.
A change in the law last April means pensioners now also have easier access to lump sums of money from their pension accounts.
The FCA found 37 per cent of over-55s were repeatedly called over investments in the past year.
They also found more than a quarter of victims of investment fraud are scammed via an unauthorised firm selling unregulated products.
Last year, a family of fraudsters from Enfield, North London, was found guilty for their roles in a £1.5million scam to sell vastly over-valued diamonds.
Mastermind Omar Eshpari, 35, and lover Anna Foord, 30, funded their lavish lifestyles and her shoe collection by flogging the near worthless stones.
Also convicted were Omar’s father Farouq Eshpari, 55, mother Safia Eshpari, 53, and brother Hider Eshpari, 29.
Meanwhile, the Bank of England’s Deputy Governor Ben Broadbent yesterday hit back at critics who say its Monetary Policy Committee does nothing.
Fraudsters have been seducing pensioners with diamond deals
In his annual report he said: “It is often said that the MPC has chosen to keep interest rates low, as if it could easily have chosen to do something else entirely.”
“While that choice is clearly there in a narrow sense, however – the nine members of the Committee vote on Bank Rate at every policy meeting – this does not mean that interest rates are low simply because the MPC has decided they should be.”
He added a higher interest rate “would have weakened the economy”.
Former Apprentice star Nick Hewer, 72, warned fraudsters “drain life savings on a false promise of great returns.
“The tactics that these criminals use are very, very sophisticated - they could suck-in even the savviest of investors, something that everyone should be aware of.”
He added: “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”