Potential scammers have targeted 1.8m people aged over 50 in the last three months, according to a new report.

Research for Retirement Advantage found that 18% of people aged over 50 have been offered unsolicited free pensions advice or investment opportunities by phone, text or email

The research, which was carried out by Censuswide last month, surveyed just over 1000 people aged over 50 who have some form of private pension savings.

Retirement Advantage’s report coincides with Citizens Advice’s Scam Awareness Month, which aims to give consumers the skills and confidence to identify scams and take action.

Andrew Tully, pensions technical director at Retirement Advantage, said: “The pension freedoms have opened the floodgates for scammers and conmen to prey on people who are keen to access their pensions. These scammers are using increasingly sophisticated and convincing ways of trying to defraud large amounts of cash from people’s hard earned pensions and savings.

“Attempts by the industry and regulators to prevent scams is not preventing huge sums of money disappearing into the scammers pockets. My concern is the reported fraud and scams is only the tip of the iceberg as many people are unaware they’ve been conned or are too ashamed to come forward and report it.

“The Government, prompted by pressure from the financial industry, has promised to ban pension cold calling. This is a positive move, but we need to keep the pressure up to make sure this comes back onto the government agenda as soon as possible.”