Perenco UK Pension Plan
Important information about your personal data
Capita provide administration services to the Perenco UK Pension Plan. This update is about the recently reported Capita cyber incident when there was unauthorised access to Capita systems.
We have been informed that for a number of members that this incident involves the disclosure of personal information.
The Trustee of the Plan takes the protection of your information very seriously and we are working with Capita as they continue their investigations, the Pension Regulator, and the appropriate regulators to investigate this occurrence. We are also in communication with Capita to make sure they are doing everything possible to secure their systems and stop this from happening again.
We are sorry for any distress this news may cause you. We wanted to take this chance to reassure you that we’re working very closely with Capita to minimise the impact on our members. We will shortly be writing to those Plan members whose data has been disclosed with further information.
To assist all members, we are providing the following information to support you in protecting your information.
Steps you can take to protect your identity
- Beware of pension scams. This website has additional information: www.fca.org.uk/scamsmart/how-avoid-pension-scams
- Check your bank statement for any unusual payments that you do not recognise or if payments you are expecting are not received.
- Undertake a credit report check for newly opened accounts or credit searches that you do not recognise
- If you use online services or telephone banking, always use strong passwords and consider changing them all now. Try to keep passwords at least eight characters long and use numbers, upper case, lower case and symbols. Avoid using words which may relate back to you (for example family member names or dates of birth).
- Never give out personal details over the phone unless you are sure who you are speaking to.
- Be careful who you share your personal information with. If someone calls you, please call them back on a number you know is from a true source.
- If you think you have been a victim of fraud you should report it to Action Fraud, the UK's national fraud and internet crime reporting centre, their telephone number is 0300 123 2040. Further support can be found on Cifas’ website
Be alert for pension scams
Once a data breach is public knowledge it is common for fraudsters to take advantage of it by preying upon the data breach victims. The fraudsters will usually email or phone pretending to be from the company that suffered the data breach – in this case they could pretend to be calling on behalf of Capita or the Trustee.
They might ask for your bank details, login details or any other personal information – don't give it to them.
Neither Capita, nor the Trustee, will ever ask for your password over the phone, so hang up if they do.
If anyone calls and asks for information, call them back from a different phone (a mobile phone if they call on a landline) and use a number you know is genuine, e.g., from a letter, bill, the company website, or the phone book. Before calling back, make sure the previous call has ended - do not call the number the fraudster gave you over the phone.
Scams can be sophisticated, but if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
For more information on pension scams and how to spot a scam visit www.fca.org.uk/consumers/protect-yourself-scams
Let Capita know straight away if you do not receive your usual pension payment or if you become aware that any of your personal details relating to your pension have been changed without your authority.
We are very sorry again that this incident happened and we thank you for your patience as we continue to work on resolving it.
The Trustee of the Perenco UK Pension Plan
6 June 2023