A ban on pension cold calls should be extended to emails and text messages, says the PFS and an adviser who began the campaign.

This week the Government published a document outlining proposals to outlaw such unsolicited phone calls.

Officials said calls were the priority and posed more danger than other types of communications.

The Personal Finance Society’s chief executive Keith Richards told Financial Planning Today: “The ban on pensions cold calling should extend as far and wide as necessary to stamp out the work of financial predators who continue to prey on the vulnerable in our community.

“That includes text messaging, e-mail communication and all other forms of communication that many cold callers use to manipulate consumers into acting contrary to their own personal financial interests.

“Cold callers and scammers are known to be innovative in their approach, so we must all remain wary of new methods adopted by dishonest operators in the marketplace.”

The PFS recently launched campaign against scammers, encouraging advisers and consumers to report any potential scams via the FCA’s ScamSmart website.

Mr Richards called for planners to give 15 minutes per month to tackle the problem. See our video with him below.

The Government’s move towards a ban came after Chartered Financial Planner Darren Cooke launched a petition, which won widespread backing from the industry.

Mr Cooke APFS, Cert PFS (DM), director of Red Circle Financial Planning in Derbyshire, would also like the ban to include electronic communications like SMS.

He said: "The original petition did call for a ban to not just cover phone calls but also e-mail and text as well. It is my fear that, although these methods are currently less successful for the fraudsters, they will move to these methods once calls are banned if they are not also banned at the same time."

He said: “We would also like to see any ban extended beyond just pensions to general investments as well to close as many doors as possible to the scammers.”

He added: “In general we are very pleased with both the tone and content of the governments consultation document.”

The Government said in its consultation papers it “believes that phone calls are the form of communication that present the greatest risk to consumers”.

It stated: “This is because pension scammers are able to draw consumers in and persuade them that they are legitimate more effectively over the phone, compared to via other forms of communication such as e-mails, which consumers can more easily disregard.”

But it said it “appreciates that there may be a case” for extending the proposal to all electronic communications, for example e-mail and text messages.

Watch: PFS chief calls for planners to help tackle scams

Keith Richards discusses scam campaign pic.twitter.com/gaLPqskMJz

— FP Today Magazine (@FPTodayMagazine) November 24, 2016