Watch what you sign up for as the hard sell goes on

Consumers have suffered a series of mis-selling scandals over the last 20 years alone, with PPI following where endowment mortgages, personal pensions, split capital investment trusts, precipice bonds and others left off. And that's without mentioning Equitable Life.

In their own right, most of those products have their place, making it harder to clamp down on mis-selling. But as millions wait for PPI compensation likely to top 6 billion in total, commission-hungry sales staff and advisers continue to flog products and services by being economical with the truth and short on moral scruples.

From investments and pensions to loans and energy contracts, people are being conned every day into buying products and services they don't want or need, or don't realise are unsuitable for them.

Here are just five of the hard sells to be wary of:

1 Structured products

Beloved of high street banks and building societies, these are selling like hot cakes as branch staff exploit demand for alternatives to the rock-bottom returns on savings accounts.

Structured products - many of which have a useful role to play for some investors - typically offer some exposure to stock market growth while protecting capital. But the risks are not always made clear, noted Derek Smith, director at IFA Melville Hutchison in Edinburgh.

He said: "Caution should be exercised as investors tend not to see the strings attached behind the very attractive headline rate. Typically, returns are reliant on the performance of a market index such as the FTSE 100, eg you will receive 6 per cent a year for five years as long as the index is above its original level at the end of the term."

In other words, it could be a good deal but investors need to be aware that if the "condition" isn't met, their income and capital could be reduced.

Smith added: "In most of these cases the golden rule is that if the deal looks too good to be true, then it probably is. Mistakes can be avoided by finding a good adviser who you trust and who will be more than happy to discuss the pros and cons of any apparently wonderful opportunity that comes along."

2 Investment bonds

These are also selling in huge numbers to bank customers receiving poor income on their savings and seeking something better. Investment bonds are developed by insurance companies, sold by high street banks and can hold several different types of investments. However, they are taxable - unlike individual savings accounts (Isas) - and can carry heavy charges.In isolation, the products are fine if they are suited to an individual's needs and circumstances. But they are frequently sold to people who don't need, want or understand them by bank advisers on generous commission who fail to fully explain the risks. Elderly savers in particular are being sold investment bonds that are not only too risky for them, but tie them in for inappropriately long periods.

Paul Lothian, chartered financial planner at Verus Financial Planning, said: "I have seen onshore investment bonds, which are taxed investments, sold to non-taxpayers. And the bonds, which pay the banks up to 7 per cent commission, generally have early encashment penalties, often as high as 10 per cent in the first five years.

"These facts are insufficiently explained to investors, and while they will appear in key facts documents, we know that most customers don't read these things."

3 Pension loans

These are the new kids on the mis-selling block, believes Andy Cumming, managing director at Scott-Moncrieff. Pension loans allow those in need of cash to borrow up to half the value of their fund by moving their money into a "master pension plan" (MPP). The MPP can then provide loans to members of a different MPP, circumventing regulations preventing people from taking out loans from their own pension plan.

But not only does taking a pension loan leave people at risk of wiping out their retirement savings, the costs can stack up too. Borrowers typically repay the loans at an interest rate of 5 per cent above the Bank of England base rate and the charges include initial and annual fees.

Cumming said: "A client who is down on his luck contacted me with details of a plan for raising capital from his pension fund. The company concerned would get an advance of 10 per cent of the fund value and in return would charge 7 per cent as an initial charge and 0.75 per cent a year for every year until retirement."

None of the companies are regulated by the Financial Services Authority and typically refuse to provide specific details until they have a commitment from the individual.

"Most of them promise up to 50 per cent of the fund as a loan, with the tag line of no interest," said Cumming. "There is definitely a bunch of sharks behind this, preying on people of last resort and desperation."

4 Identity insurance

PPI might have been massively mis-sold, but the basic product remains a valid proposition. That might not necessarily be said of identity theft insurance.

Identity theft is a very real and often very expensive issue, as millions of people have discovered in recent years. If you've recently called your bank to activate a credit or debit card, there's a strong chance that shortly afterwards you received a call flogging identity theft insurance, usually costing between 50 and 80 a year.

However, it is almost entirely pointless, as the UK's consumer laws already provide ample protection.Under the Consumer Credit Act 1974, providers are liable for the losses arising from fraud, not the customer whose details have been fraudulently used, provided the latter has acted honestly and used reasonable care.

The biggest firm in the identity theft insurance market, CPP, is currently under investigation by the Financial Services Authority, with the focus on the potential mis-selling of its products.

5 Energy switching

Door-to-door salesmen may be a thing of the past in the financial services industry, but they remain a key weapon in the energy supply sector. The tactics are familiar: by bombarding people with misleading facts and figures, firms lure people into switching supplier unaware of the full facts or unsure of what they are getting into.

Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE) was recently found guilty by Guildford Crown Court of using doorstep sales scripts designed to con customers into believing they were paying over the odds for their current energy supply. The court said the data in the scripts was out of date, with many people lured into switching only to find themselves on a more expensive tariff.

More firms could land in hot water for similar reasons, with energy regulator Ofgem looking into doorstep mis-selling by four different suppliers over the last year.