‘Boiler room fraudsters’ claiming to be from legitimate and regulated firms are going to new lengths to defraud high-net-worth consumers and others out of their savings since the UK 'pension freedoms' came into effect very recently, according to one of the world’s largest independent financial advisory organisations.

The firm has received an almighty gust of recent complaints from people who suspect that they have been contacted by con artists.

For more than two years, the consultancy has been warning of the rise of so-called clone companies whose employees contact people and claim to be from fully authorised, regulated and licenced financial advisory firms. Typically, the scammers cold-call investors to promote investments that are worthless, overpriced or perhaps even non-existent.

With depressing frequency, the firm notes that it is now receiving calls from people after they have transferred funds to the suspected fraudsters. One 80-year old, it says, has ‘invested’ his savings with a clone firm that was pretending to be deVere United Kingdom.

The firm has noted a month-on-month increase of such calls of approximately 35%. The calls have come from its clients not only in the UK, but all over Europe, North America and the Persian Gulf. It attributes this to the launch of HM Government’s landmark pension freedoms.

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 United Kingdom. These methods are still common, but the boiler rooms seem to be growing more sophisticated. Some of them, for example, are now even using fake Financial Conduct Authority numbers and pretending to have the same names as deVere's actual consultants when speaking to their potential victims.

The deVere Group is at pains to inform potential victims that it does not handle clients' money, so they must not send anything to any accounts on that understanding.