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Investment Scams UK: Spot Fake Firms, Bonds & Pensions

Fake bonds, clone firms, boiler-room calls, pension cold calls and paid-for debt help all target your savings. How to check a firm, and how to report one.

Finance scams go after money you have saved, or money you owe, rather than money you are spending. The approach is usually either an investment — a bond, shares, forex, land, a trading platform — or a way out of debt, and both borrow credibility from the regulated world: a real firm's name, a genuine reference number, a brochure that looks like it came from a bank. UK Finance's Annual Fraud Report 2026 recorded £221.5 million lost to investment fraud in 2025, up 40% on the year and the largest single share of authorised push payment losses, across 14,893 cases, up 26%. Both of those figures are UK Finance's investment-fraud category within the authorised push payment scams reported by its member banks: they are not a total for all finance fraud, all investment losses or all fraud reports. The wider picture, with every publisher named, is in our UK scam statistics.

Been approached about an investment or a debt solution? Paste it into our free AI scam checker for an automated second opinion. It is an automated second opinion, not a verdict, and it does not replace checking a firm or a seller for yourself.

What makes a finance scam different

The amounts are large. Not a £2.99 'redelivery fee' but a deposit, a transfer, or an entire pension pot — so the check you make before paying matters far more than the one afterwards.
They borrow the regulator's authority. Fraudsters quote real firm names and genuine reference numbers, because they know a careful reader looks for exactly those things.
The pressure can be slow or immediate. Some investment scams build trust over weeks, using fabricated dashboards or small early withdrawals. Others pressure you to invest immediately. Either pattern is dangerous when the offer is unsolicited or cannot be verified independently. Where an early payout is real, it can be funded from your own deposit, from later investors or from other victims; in other cases the profit exists only on a fabricated dashboard and no money was ever invested. Either way it is not a return.

Which finance scam are you dealing with?

Work from how the approach reached you and what it was selling.

An unsolicited offer of a fixed, high return, often called exclusive or a 'private placement' — see how fake high-return bonds work, and the FCA's own rule of thumb that the higher the advertised rate, the higher the risk.
A cold call about shares, sometimes with a complimentary research report thrown in: the FCA calls this a boiler room, and our guide covers spotting a boiler-room share cold call.
A firm whose contact details do not match the FCA Register, or which says the Register is out of date — the clone-firm trick, explained in how clone firm investment scams work.
A platform promising guaranteed profits, usually reached through social media: read how to spot a fake forex broker.
Returns that depend on new people joining. Returns paid from later investors' money are a Ponzi pattern. A scheme that rewards you primarily for recruiting friends or relatives is a pyramid pattern. Both depend on a continuing flow of new money and collapse when it stops. If you are offered commission for introducing friends, read our Ponzi scheme warning first.
Cheap plots of land said to be certain of planning permission — our guide to land banking scams explains why to check the council's planning portal, not the brochure.
An unexpected call about your pension. Unsolicited live calls about pensions have been banned in the UK since 9 January 2019. The exception is narrow and has two limbs that both have to be met: the caller must be authorised by the FCA or be the trustee or manager of an occupational or personal pension scheme; and you must either have consented to calls from that caller, or have an existing relationship with them in which you would reasonably expect the call. A cold caller cannot demonstrate either on the spot, so hang up and check independently — our guide to pension cold calls covers the ban and what to do if a transfer has already started.

Checking a firm — and what the check cannot tell you

Search for the firm yourself on the FCA Firm Checker and the Financial Services Register at register.fca.org.uk, typing the address in rather than following a link you were sent.
Confirm the exact firm, contact details and relevant permission. Correct authorisation can make regulatory complaint or compensation routes available, but the product and activity determine whether they apply.
Absence from the Firm Checker is a warning sign, not proof. Some lawful activities are not regulated at all, so absence is decisive only where the service being offered is one that should be regulated. It is still reason enough to stop and take free, impartial guidance before paying anything.
Being listed is not proof either. Clone firms impersonate authorised firms and reuse their genuine names and reference numbers, so check the contact details on the Register entry itself and call back only on the number shown there — never the details supplied by the approach. Any claim that the Register is 'out of date' is a warning sign in itself.
Check the FCA Warning List, then ask precisely how the return is generated. A firm that cannot explain that in checkable terms has told you something important.

When the offer is help rather than profit

The same pattern runs in reverse for people who are struggling: instead of a return, you are promised relief. A cold approach offering to write off most of your debt through a vague 'government scheme' for an upfront fee is covered in our guide to fake debt help companies, and the version that pushes one product hard is in how to spot a fake IVA firm.

An individual voluntary arrangement is a genuine, formal debt solution, and legitimate IVAs do involve nominee and supervisor fees. Under the IVA Protocol those fees are generally met from within the agreed monthly payments rather than demanded as a separate upfront charge to release the arrangement, so the existence of a fee is not itself the warning sign. What should stop you is an unsolicited, high-pressure approach from a lead generator; a promise that an IVA is guaranteed or suitable before anyone has assessed your circumstances; a separate payment demanded upfront; a caller who will not say which firm they actually work for; or a pitch that never explains the alternatives or the insolvency practitioner's role. IVAs are available in England, Wales and Northern Ireland; Scotland has different formal debt solutions, including protected trust deeds and the Debt Arrangement Scheme. Get jurisdiction-specific free debt advice before agreeing to any solution. Free, impartial debt advice is available through the debt-help route on GOV.UK and through MoneyHelper, and from free providers such as StepChange and National Debtline — compare the options there before agreeing to anything paid.

A third variant pays you. If a 'job' involves money arriving in your own account and being forwarded on for a cut, read how money mule recruitment works: the account can be frozen with your own money inside it.

If you have already paid

Stop sending money, including any fee or tax described as needed to release your balance. An unexpected payment demanded before a displayed balance can be released is part of the scam, not a route out of it.
Contact your bank straight away and say it was a scam. For eligible domestic consumer Faster Payments and CHAPS payments made since 7 October 2024, mandatory reimbursement may apply, subject to an £85,000 cap, a possible excess of up to £100 that cannot be applied to a consumer the firm assesses as vulnerable, and a limit of 13 months from the last relevant payment. Exclusions apply, so it is never a guaranteed refund.
Keep everything — contracts, emails, chat logs, payment confirmations — and screenshot it before a platform can withdraw your access. Then work through our scam recovery checklist.
Expect a second approach, and treat it as expected rather than as your mistake. Fraudsters deliberately re-target people known to have lost money, sometimes under a new name. A caller claiming to be the FCA, the police or a law firm offering to release your funds for a fee is described in our guide to recovery room scams.

How to report a finance scam in the UK

Tell your bank first if money has moved — it holds the reimbursement process. Report a suspected unauthorised or clone firm to the FCA on 0800 111 6768. Report the fraud to Report Fraud (formerly Action Fraud) at reportfraud.police.uk or 0300 123 2040 in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, or to Police Scotland on 101 in Scotland. Forward a suspicious email to report@phishing.gov.uk, and forward a suspicious text message to 7726 free of charge.

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Updated 30 July 2026

Common questions

Does FCA authorisation mean an investment is safe?

No. Authorisation means a firm may carry on a regulated activity; it says nothing about whether an investment is suitable or will hold its value. Correct authorisation can make regulatory complaint or compensation routes available, but the product and activity determine whether they apply. It also does not confirm who you are speaking to — clone firms impersonate authorised businesses and reuse their genuine names and reference numbers. Check the contact details on the Register entry itself and call back only on the number shown there.

Is a firm missing from the FCA Firm Checker definitely a scam?

Not automatically, but treat it as a serious warning sign and pay nothing while the question is open. Some lawful activities sit outside FCA regulation, so absence is decisive only where the service being offered is one that should be regulated, and a name can also be spelled differently. Look the firm up again under its exact registered name, check the FCA Warning List, and take free, impartial guidance before committing money.

I was cold-called about my pension. Is that allowed?

Unsolicited live calls about pensions have been banned in the UK since 9 January 2019. The exception is narrow and both limbs must be met: the caller has to be authorised by the FCA or be the trustee or manager of an occupational or personal pension scheme, and you have to have consented to calls from that caller or have an existing relationship with them in which you would reasonably expect the call. A cold caller cannot demonstrate either on the spot, so hang up, then contact your provider or MoneyHelper's free guidance yourself.

Can I get money back after an investment scam bank transfer?

Sometimes. Tell your bank immediately and say it was a scam. Mandatory reimbursement can apply to eligible domestic consumer Faster Payments and CHAPS payments made since 7 October 2024, subject to an £85,000 cap, a possible excess of up to £100 that cannot be applied to a consumer the firm assesses as vulnerable, and a 13-month limit from the last relevant payment. Exclusions apply, so it is not guaranteed.

Sources checked

Last reviewed 2026-07-30. Reporting routes are checked against our verified canon of official UK sources. Read about how Beat the Scam writes guides.

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