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<p>The Government takes the threat posed by scams very seriously and recognises that
these can be complex and multifaceted, often spanning departmental and agency boundaries.
It is for this reason that the Government established Project Bloom, a multi-department,
multi-agency group of officials to help co-ordinate action to tackle scams, monitor
trends and share intelligence on emerging threats. Members include the National Crime
Agency, police forces, Pension Wise, regulators and key Government departments.</p><p>Those
scams which are reported, including Pension Liberation reports, are collected and
collated by the National Fraud Reporting Centre (Action Fraud), within the City of
London Police, which was established in 2013. However, the true extent of pension
scams in the UK is unknown because many go un-reported.</p><p>The data on the number
of reported scams will include those which have been reported over the past three
years by individuals, pension providers, the Pensions Regulator or other agencies
but, on which, Action Fraud has not yet received any feedback from the investigating
police force, for example, a report on whether suspects have been charged or summonsed.
This delay is due to the complexity of pension fraud investigations which can take
several years to investigate. Action Fraud would not know the outcome until the end
of the court case. Frequently, numerous fraud reports will relate to a single suspect.</p><p>The
data on the number of reported scams also includes reports where organisations have
taken action to prevent that fraud. Outcome feedback would only be received in respect
of these reports if the Police became involved.</p><p>We expect the number of charges
and summons to increase as outcome feedback from investigating police forces for pre
2014 reports is received and collated. The available data is provided in the table
below:</p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>Year</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>No.
of Action Fraud Reports </strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Suspect charged / summonsed</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2014</p></td><td><p>911</p></td><td><p>1</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2015</p></td><td><p>807</p></td><td><p>6</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2016
(to date)</p></td><td><p>290</p></td><td><p>0</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Total:
</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2,008</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>7</strong></p></td></tr></tbody></table><p>
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