Warning against cold callers using sales tactics to erode super funds

Superannuation funds warn scams on the rise

Australians are being warned about a group of operators who are cold-calling consumers and using “high-pressure” sales tactics to convince them to move their superannuation against their best interest.

The operators, in partnership with a “small group of financial advisors”, are gaining personal information from third-party data brokers and are recommending consumers switch super funds to ones that have significant fees, according to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

The operators are mostly targeting Australians aged between 25 and 50, putting them at risk of having their retirement savings eroded.

ASIC said it had observed “considerable volumes” of super savings flowing into high-risk property-managed investment schemes.

The payments are going via APRA-regulated funds or self-managed superannuation fund products before being made to the cold-calling businesses.

“Some of these cold calling operators are pressuring consumers in critical retirement-saving years to move their savings when it is not in their best interests, putting them at risk of having less super as a result of inappropriate investments, fees and charges,” ASIC Commissioner Alan Kirkland said.

“The small subset of financial advisers benefitting from this conduct threaten to undermine the reputation of the rest of the industry.”

Kirkland said ASIC was prepared to take action to protect consumers and called on financial advice licensees and super trustees to do more to weed out unscrupulous actors and reduce consumer harm.

“Deterring cold calling for superannuation switching models is an ASIC priority, and we will continue to take action, including enforcement action, to protect consumers from high pressure, cold calling practices that induce inappropriate superannuation-switching,” he said.

ASIC has launched a campaign to encourage consumers to “just hang up” when being contacted by cold callers and to scroll past social media click-bait advertisements.