Pension scams: Letter from the DWP turned out to be a fake

An independent reader received a letter that asked him for his bank account number, partner's date of birth and national insurance numbers

The letter purported to be from the DWP, but it wasn't

Here is a possible pensions scam for you to be wary of, as reported to me by reader Derek Croft.

He recently received two letters. The first was from the Pension Service about the upcoming winter fuel payment. In the same post but in a separate envelope was a second letter apparently from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

"Although the address of the two organisations was exactly the same, the second letter had a standard landline telephone number beginning 01282," Derek said. The number stood out because he had noticed that most official departments use an 0845 or 0345 number.

But there was another reason for Derek suspecting not all was right with the second letter. "It was on cheaper paper, the logo was badly printed and, more importantly, it was requesting information I would never willingly release such as bank sort codes and account numbers, partner's date of birth and the first two and last three digits of both our national insurance numbers."

The DWP letter also claimed: "We are contacting you to confirm the information we hold. It is important that you reply within fourteen days".

It's a good job Derek was so observant and on his guard. He did call the 01282 number, only to hear a rather badly recorded message asking for his phone number and advising him to await a call back. When he told the Pension Service, it told him to ignore the second letter. It was undoubtedly a scam. My advice? Be as careful as Derek was to avoid becoming a victim of crooks.