ICO investigating claims that personal pension data is being sold

Unscrupulous firms are capturing and selling personal data for as little as 5p per record to cold calling companies, according to the Daily Mail.

There are fears that UK residents and expats who will have access to their full pension pots from the 6^th April are going to be targeted by cold-calling companies.

As part of its own undercover investigation, the Daily Mail called a number of firms offering the personal data and masqueraded as a cold calling firm who were then offered the data at a small price.

Cold calling is far from being a new nuisance, with current popular favourites including accident claims as well as PPI misspelling in the UK.

This news will come as no shock to expats who have been regularly contacted about their pension schemes by cold calling companies around the world. And while each country will have their own data protection rules, quite often complaints and investigations will mean little if you are on the receiving end.

As with any major changes or shakeups, it is vital that if anybody receives a call they were not expecting then, if they decided to proceed with the conversation, they should do so only with the utmost caution. If at any time something is unclear, or sounds fishy, it is important to get a second opinion before anything is signed or paid for.

We’d always recommend that you avoid having any in depth conversations with somebody you don’t know who has called you out of the blue.