Ilmarinen, the Finnish earnings-related pension provider, has warned of recent fraudulent messages in its name, marking a continuation of this trend in the European pensions sector.

The provider confirmed this was a phishing attempt aimed at obtaining personal information, such as online banking credentials, stressing that actual text messages from Ilmarinen never contain a link or ask for a username or password.

The warning follows growing concerns from European pension providers over scam risks, with Varma and Keva warning members in June that their brands were being used by scammers.

"You can recognise a message from us by the fact that it instructs you to act through Ilmarinen's own ilmarinen.fi website," Ilmarinen urged, adding that users can use the login window found on Ilmarinen's own, public website without any worries.

However, the firm noted that when it serves customers over the phone, it will ask them to identify themselves electronically.

"If you receive an email from us with links, you can check where the link takes you by hovering your mouse over the link without clicking on it," it explained, adding that you will see the full address to which the link is taking you.

"Scammers are clever, and many of the pages they create may look genuine at first glance," Ilmarinen warned.

Indeed, the issue of pension fraud is not limited to pension providers, as the Romanian Financial Supervisory Authority (ASF) has also recently issued a warning regarding cases where unknown individuals falsely presented themselves as employees of the institution.

Amid the recent rise in pension fraud, The Pensions Regulator (TPR) in the UK has outlined plans to strengthen its defences against pension scams by stepping up the multi-agency response it leads through closer collaboration, strategic partnerships and improved intelligence.

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