Increase in boiler room scammers' activities

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The warnings from White come in response to a new wave of complaints the firm has received from clients who suspect they have been contacted by con artists. 'Boiler rooms' are typically unregulated organisations, where high-pressure salespeople call lists of potential investors in order to peddle speculative, even fraudulent, securities.

"For more than two years, we have been warning of the rise of so-called clone companies, whose employees contact people claiming to be from fully authorised, regulated and licensed financial advisory firms such as deVere," White comments.

Worthless investments

"Typically, these scammers cold call investors to promote investments that are worthless, overpriced or perhaps even non-existent. Since the beginning of April, the number of calls we have received from clients concerned about clone scams has sky rocketed. And with depressing frequency, we're now receiving calls from people after they have transferred funds to the suspected fraudsters."

Clone scams can involve the cloning of identity, telephone or account details for fraudulent purposes.

"We have noted a month-on-month increase of such calls of approximately 35%. The calls have come from our clients not only in the UK, but across Europe, the US and South Africa. We believe that it is not a coincidence that this significant increase coincides with the launch of the British government's landmark pension freedoms."

Earlier this year, deVere Group's founder and chief executive, Nigel Green, issued a public statement warning that "...as the new freedoms and flexibilities come into effect in April, the scam artists are likely to increase their activities yet further as they will see it as 'boom time'."

"Previously, the tactics employed by these criminals typically involved using almost identical trading names, websites, logos and business cards as those of genuine firms, such as deVere," White adds.

Fake regulatory numbers

"Whilst these are still common methods used to dupe people, the boiler room con artists seem to be getting yet more sophisticated. Some of them, for example, are now even using fake regulatory numbers that are similar to our registered one and adopting the similar or the same names as our genuine consultants when speaking to their potential victims.

"If you suspect you have been contacted by a bogus firm, document each email and/or call and retain all paperwork and don't indicate to the scammers you suspect anything. Then you need to report your suspicions to the regulator and the police who can investigate.

"Beware of investments that appear too good to be true, bank accounts to send money to in different names to either of the companies that are being presented and bank accounts that are based overseas," White concludes.