Rising numbers of people aged 55 or above are being targeted by scammers by phone, text or email, polling has suggested.

Some 35% have been offered free pensions advice or investment opportunities over the phone or via electronic messaging, according to research by Consumer Intelligence. It spoke to 610 private pension holders between November and December on behalf of Retirement Advantage.

Back in June 2015, when the company last asked about pension scams, 1 in 5 people aged 50+ said they had been approached with offers of free pension reviews or investment advice.

Andrew Tully, pensions technical director at Retirement Advantage, said: “It’s a huge concern that many more people are telling us they have been approached by companies offering free pension reviews or investment opportunities.

“This seems to be the start of a trend so it is crucial people are alert to the possibility that scammers may get in touch.

“It is clear there are unscrupulous people preying on certain groups, using increasingly sophisticated and convincing ways of trying to defraud large amounts of cash from people’s pensions. We all need to be on constant guard: if an opportunity sounds too good to be true, it almost certainly is.”

Research from Aegon UK last month suggested fraud was in particular a danger for men.

Some 23% of men, and 16% of women it polled had received a cold call offering a free pension review or pension investment opportunity and 18% of men and 12% of women have received an offer suggesting they can access their pension pot before 55.

It found 13% of men, and 9% of women have received a text message offering a free pension review or pension investment opportunity.

The firm said these were “worryingly high numbers, especially as a third (32%) of women and one in five men (17%) are not aware that the reforms increase the likelihood of pension scams”.

The Citizens Advice Bureau said it helped with over 5,000 scam or fraud problems from April 2014 to March 2015, of which nearly a third were reported by people aged 65 and over.

Gillian Guy, chief executive of Citizens Advice, said: “Scammers see pensioners as a prime target. There are many people looking to benefit from the new pension rules, including scammers. Fraudsters can ruin people’s retirement plans by taking a portion or all of a victim’s pension pots.”