The FCA Warning List and ScamSmart

The FCA Warning List is the Financial Conduct Authority's public list of firms and individuals it knows to be operating without permission or running scams. The Financial Conduct Authority is the UK's financial services conduct regulator, and the Warning List can be used to check whether a firm or individual is known to it as operating without permission or involved in fraud¹. Some financial services firms work without FCA authorisation, which is against the law, and the list is one of the main ways the regulator flags them to the public².

The list is a live tool rather than a static document. It is updated daily³, and the FCA also passes alerts to Google once a week so that adverts from firms on the list can be removed from Google's advertising platform⁴. Alongside the list, the FCA runs ScamSmart, a campaign to increase awareness of the tactics scammers use so that potential victims can spot fraud attempts before losing money¹.

Two things matter when using these tools. First, a firm appearing on the list is a strong signal to avoid it entirely. Second, a firm not appearing on the list is not a signal that it is safe: the list only covers what the FCA knows about, and the FCA itself warns that it cannot guarantee the accuracy of the information it publishes and does not accept liability for errors or missing information⁵. The checks that actually confirm a firm is legitimate are the FCA Register and the FCA's Firm Checker tool, covered below.

What the FCA Warning List is: firms to avoid

The Warning List exists to answer one question: has the FCA already identified this firm or person as one to avoid? It can be used to check whether a firm or individual is known to the Financial Conduct Authority to be operating without permission or running scams¹. Entries typically cover firms the FCA believes are offering financial services in the UK without authorisation, firms it suspects of fraud, and businesses connected to them.

The reason the list matters is the legal position behind it. Firms must be authorised by the FCA to provide consumers with a wide range of products and services, including bank accounts, credit cards and other lending, Buy Now Pay Later, credit broking, debt advice and collection, crowdfunding, claims management, insurance, funeral plans, investments such as shares and funds, workplace and personal pensions, residential mortgages and equity release, and payments and e-money services such as online wallets and money transfers². Some firms work without that authorisation, which is against the law². Dealing with them means losing the protections that come with the regulatory system, a point the FCA's own rules make firms spell out in certain agreements: where an agreement provider is not authorised or regulated by the FCA, key protections under the regulatory system will not apply⁷.

The list is not a one-off publication. It is updated daily³, and the FCA sends alerts to Google once a week so that Google Ads placed by firms on the list can be taken down⁴. When the FCA has published a warning about an unauthorised firm, that warning also appears on the Firm Checker tool and the Financial Services Register when someone searches for the firm, with the full list on the Warning List page². So a search for a firm's name can surface a warning in more than one place.

What the list does not do is equally important. It is not a register of approved firms, and it is not a guarantee that everything absent from it is legitimate. The FCA states plainly that it cannot guarantee the accuracy of the information it publishes and does not accept liability for errors or missing information⁵. A scam that started yesterday, or one that has not yet been reported to the FCA, will not be on the list. Treat an entry as a definitive reason to walk away, and treat a missing entry as a reason to keep checking rather than a reason to proceed.

ScamSmart: the FCA's campaign to help you spot scams

ScamSmart is the FCA's campaign to increase awareness of the tactics used by scammers, so that potential victims can spot fraud attempts before they lose money¹. Where the Warning List tells you what the FCA already knows, ScamSmart is designed to help you judge an offer that has not yet been flagged. The FCA directs people who suspect an investment or pension scam to check the details of the investment and whether the provider is genuine on its website⁸.

The campaign is aimed at the two areas where the largest losses tend to occur: investment fraud and pension fraud. Its advice combines two checks. The first is on the investment itself: whether the returns being promised, the pressure being applied and the way the firm contacted you fit the pattern of a scam. The second is on the provider: whether the firm is authorised by the FCA to sell the product it is offering. Both checks matter, because a firm can be genuine but not authorised for the activity it is offering you, and a fraudster can claim an authorisation that belongs to somebody else.

ScamSmart's core message is echoed across the official bodies that deal with fraud. The Financial Ombudsman Service tells consumers to use the FCA's Firm Checker to confirm a firm is authorised and help avoid scams, both for banking and payment complaints⁹ and for pension and annuity complaints¹⁰. The Information Commissioner's Office, which handles nuisance calls, refers complaints about fraud and scams to the police reporting service¹¹. The consistent official position is that checking before you pay is the protection that works, because the remedies available afterwards are limited and uncertain.

The practical habit ScamSmart promotes is simple: never take a firm's word for its own status. If you have been contacted unexpectedly about an opportunity, the FCA's own warning is blunt: it is likely to be high risk or a scam⁵. The warning signs of a scam are covered in more detail elsewhere on this site, and the checks themselves are set out in the next section.

How to check a firm before you invest or transfer a pension

Before moving pension money or investing, the official guidance is to run two separate checks: one on the adviser and one on the provider. The Financial Services Compensation Scheme's pension protection guide sets these out as steps. If you are considering getting financial advice about your pension, search the FCA register to check that it authorises your financial adviser. If you are switching your pension or taking out a new one, search the FCA register to check that it authorises your new pension provider¹². The government's guidance on personal pension rights makes the same point: check that your provider is registered with the FCA, or with the Pensions Regulator in the case of a stakeholder pension¹³.

The order of the checks matters. A fraudster will present documents, a website and a phone number that look convincing, so the check has to be made independently of anything the firm gave you. Northern Ireland's official pensions guidance advises that you can use the online FCA register or telephone the FCA consumer helpline to check a firm's authorisation¹⁴. For the most accurate results, search the register using the provider's firm reference number (FRN)¹⁵, a unique number every authorised firm has. Fraudsters sometimes quote a real FRN belonging to a different, genuine firm, so it is worth confirming that the name and the number match the same entry.

The same checking habit applies beyond pensions. The FSCS, which pays compensation when authorised firms fail, tells consumers they can check the Financial Services Register on the FCA's website to see if the firm mentioned to them is authorised¹⁸, and its protection checker is itself based on the register, which anyone can search directly¹⁹. Its investment protection guide adds a second layer: find out whether the particular activity the authorised firm is carrying out for you is regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority or the FCA¹⁶, because authorisation for one activity does not mean every product the firm sells you is covered. The Bank of England explains the Prudential Regulation Authority's role alongside the FCA²⁰. The FCA is the go-to contact if you want to check whether a firm is legitimate or report a possible scam²¹.

If any step fails, or you cannot complete it, do not proceed. The full guide to checking a firm is authorised walks through the register in detail.

Firm Checker and the FCA Register: authorised is not the same as safe

The FCA has launched a tool, Firm Checker, to help consumers check whether financial services firms are authorised and have permission to sell products and services⁵. It serves the same purpose as the Financial Services Register, which you can search to check whether a provider or adviser is authorised by the PRA or FCA²²: confirming the firm is authorised and helping avoid scams²³. The FCA publishes contact details for regulated financial businesses²⁴, which is what makes the contact-detail check described in the next section possible.

The crucial distinction the register exposes is between firms that are authorised, firms that are merely registered, and firms that are neither. If you use a firm that is registered but not authorised, you are unlikely to have protection from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme if the firm goes out of business, or access to the Financial Ombudsman Service if you want to complain². That difference can decide whether money lost to a failed firm is ever recovered, and it is invisible unless you look.

The second distinction is between being authorised and being safe. Authorisation means a firm has permission to carry on specific regulated activities. It does not mean the FCA vouches for the firm's products, that an investment will perform, or that the firm cannot fail. The FCA states that it cannot guarantee the accuracy of the information on the register and does not accept liability for errors or missing information⁵. A firm can also hold authorisation for one activity while offering you something outside it, which is why the FSCS advises checking that the particular activity being carried out for you is regulated¹⁶.

The register also shows warnings. If the FCA has published a warning about an unauthorised firm, it appears on the Firm Checker and the register when you search for that firm². And the register records when permissions end: under the Payment Services Regulations 2017, where the FCA proposes to cancel a person's authorisation, other than at the person's request, it must first give the person a warning notice²⁵. A firm whose authorisation has lapsed or been cancelled can still trade on its past status, so checking the current entry, not an old screenshot or brochure, is what counts.

The same checking method works for specific products. For Buy Now Pay Later firms, the FCA advises searching the firm by name, selecting the relevant permission category, and checking the firm is authorised with permission to lend²⁶. For car finance, the FCA publishes a list of lenders with a complaint route, and its guidance on identifying your lender includes checking old bank statements, contacting the dealer, or checking your credit file, which you can access for free through Experian and TransUnion²⁷.

Clone firms: check the contact details match the Register

A clone firm is a fraudster pretending to be a genuine, FCA authorised firm. The FSCS describes it as a common scam: a fraudster pretends to be a real FCA authorised firm, which is why the advice is always to use the contact details on the Register, not the details the firm gives you¹⁷. The FCA's own guidance is the same: check that the contact details match those listed on Firm Checker, to avoid scammers pretending to be a real firm²³. The Financial Ombudsman Service repeats this for pension complaints¹⁰.

The scam works because the clone borrows everything that makes a genuine firm look trustworthy: the name, the FRN, the logo, sometimes even the real firm's registered address. What the fraudster controls is the channel: the phone number you were told to call, the email address, the website, the bank details for your money. Those will not match the contact details the FCA publishes for the real firm²⁴. So the check is not "does this firm exist on the register?" but "do the details I was given belong to that entry?"

The same principle applies in other frauds that borrow a legitimate front. In loan fee fraud, the official advice is to check you are using a legitimate loan provider by searching the FCA Firm Checker and using the contact details listed there, not the ones given to you²⁸. Whether the approach is an investment, a pension transfer or a loan, the method is identical: find the firm independently on the register, then use only the contact details published there.

If the details do not match, treat the approach as a scam regardless of how genuine everything else looks. The dedicated page on clone firms covers the tactic in more detail, and how to check your bank is really contacting you applies the same idea to your bank.

Pension and investment scams: the warning signs

The warning signs of pension and investment scams are consistent across the official bodies. The Pensions Regulator's press release summarises them: unexpected offers, promises of early access to pensions, or guaranteed high returns²⁹. The regulator also expects the governing bodies of pension schemes to give members clear information on how to spot a scam in all relevant communications, including standard materials such as the retirement wake-up pack and annual benefit statements, and to place scam warning messages on the scheme's website³⁰.

Each sign points to something the rules do not allow or that genuine firms do not do. Unexpected offers matter because cold calling about pensions is banned, and an approach out of the blue is, in the FCA's words, likely to be high risk or a scam⁵. Promises of early access matter because there is a minimum age for taking pension savings, so an offer to release money before then is not a loophole but a fraud. Guaranteed high returns matter because genuine investments carry risk, and a guarantee is the tell of a scam rather than a feature of a product.

The FSCS's archive guidance on pension scams adds the clone firm warning: a common scam is to pretend to be a genuine FCA authorised firm, and the contact details on the Register should always be used rather than the ones the firm supplies¹⁷. Its property scam page, which deals with investment frauds involving property, likewise advises searching the FCA register using the provider's firm reference number for the most accurate results¹⁵.

The practical protection is to slow down. Scams depend on urgency: a deadline, a bonus that expires, a market that will not wait. Every official source points the same way: check the firm on the register, check the permission, check the contact details, and refuse to be rushed. The pages on pension liberation and early access offers, investment cold calls and the ban on pension cold calling cover these tactics in depth.

What the FCA can and cannot do for you

The FCA's powers are directed at firms, not at compensating individuals. The clearest statement of the limit comes from the FCA itself: it cannot pay compensation, and it cannot order a claims management company to compensate you, even if you have received poor service⁶. Losing money to an unauthorised firm or a scammer does not create a claim against the FCA; the regulator's role is to warn, to supervise authorised firms, and to act against those breaking the rules.

What the FCA does do is publish. It maintains the Warning List, updated daily³; it publishes warnings about unauthorised firms, which appear on the Firm Checker and the register when you search for the firm²; and it publishes contact details for regulated businesses so consumers can verify who they are dealing with²⁴. It also takes enforcement action: it has taken civil action to stop unlawful activity and obtain compensation for victims, and in one case recovered about £380,000¹. Those recoveries are the exception, depend on the FCA's ability to trace assets, and cannot be relied on by any individual victim.

What the FCA does not do is resolve your dispute. Complaints about regulated firms run first through the firm and then through the Financial Ombudsman Service, which can look at banking and payment complaints⁹ and pension and annuity complaints¹⁰. The ombudsman's own guidance is to check the firm is regulated using the FCA's Firm Checker before complaining¹⁰, because its jurisdiction depends on the firm being authorised. Money held with a failed authorised firm may be covered by the FSCS, but the FSCS's protection checker is based on the FCA's register¹⁹, and a firm that was never authorised leaves you outside both schemes. The page on protections you lose by dealing with an unauthorised firm sets out what is at stake.

One further limit concerns claims management companies. You can complain to the FCA if you are unhappy with the conduct of a claims company, and poor conduct could include breaking the conduct rules, making unsolicited calls or texts, or not being registered on the financial services register⁶. But the FCA cannot order the company to compensate you⁶. The FCA has also warned that consumers using a claims management company or law firm for its car finance compensation scheme could lose over 30% of any money they get³¹, a reminder that help recovering money is itself a market where charges bite.

Reporting a scam and getting help

If you have been targeted, the reporting routes depend on what has happened. To check a firm or report a possible scam, the FCA is the go-to contact²¹, and you can use the online FCA register or telephone the FCA consumer helpline¹⁴. The Citizens Advice Consumer Service has a helpline on 0808 223 1133, open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm²⁴. The Information Commissioner's Office, which handles nuisance calls and mail, refers complaints about fraud and scams to the police reporting service¹¹.

If you have already paid, speed matters more than paperwork. The FSCS's advice is to speak to your bank, building society or credit union, because they can protect and reimburse victims of certain types of fraud, and to report to Action Fraud at www.actionfraud.police.uk¹⁸. Bank transfer fraud is handled through your payment provider under the authorised push payment rules, and the pages on what to do straight away, claiming a refund from your bank and where to report a scam cover the process step by step.

A refused refund can be taken further. You can complain to your bank, and if it does not put things right, take the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, which handles banking and payment complaints⁹ and pension and annuity complaints¹⁰. The ombudsman recommends checking the firm is regulated using the FCA's Firm Checker before complaining¹⁰. The pages on how to complain to your bank about a scam refund and taking a refused refund to the ombudsman explain each stage.

Two warnings belong here. First, be wary of anyone who contacts you offering to recover money you have lost: recovery room scams and firms asking to be paid to recover lost money target previous victims precisely because they are on lists of people who have already paid. Second, if a firm that has appeared on the Warning List contacts you, stop all contact: an unexpected approach about a financial opportunity is likely to be high risk or a scam⁵, and the FCA's own advice is to use the contact details on the register, never the ones the firm supplies²³.