FRAUDSTERS are bombarding over-55s with cold calls and emails offering bogus pension opportunities as they look to exploit new retirement rules, Citizens Advice warned in a new report yesterday.

The research, which comes four months after Tory pension reforms came into effect, found that two in five staff have seen people repeatedly targeted by pension scams.

The new rules mean people no longer have to buy an income called an annuity with their savings when they retire.

But half of Citizens Advice pension workers think pension scams are evolving into investment scams, targeting cash lump sums that people can now release from their pension pots.

A further third believe scams targeting the over-55s have increased.

Citizens Advice chief executive Gillian Guy said: “Opportunistic fraudsters are finding new ways to go after people’s pension pots including offering free pension reviews and promising to invest in funds that don’t necessarily exist.”