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SunnyMorningDays
Posts: 12 Forumite
Hello!
I'm not sure if this is the correct place to put this. I'm very sorry if it's in the wrong area.
Heads up in advance, I'm writing this on behalf of my Dad so some of the details may be vague until I can talk to him again and get them ordered.
A few years ago (10+) my Dad purchased some shares in a company. And... that's pretty much it. He can't remember how many or what the company did or... anything else really. He has a vague memory of the company being bought out (or merging) with another company and he has given me the name of that company but I can't seem to find anything online, so it may be incorrect.
However, a few weeks ago my Dad received a call from an American gentleman telling him that the company he bought shares in was experiencing a hostile takeover and he wanted to buy these shares from my Dad. At the time my Dad was busy so he took a few (unfortunately bare) details and asked for a follow up email. Some documents have arrived but he hasn't read them yet - I also told him not to open them until I'd run a virus scan or something first.
Today whilst my Dad was out another (apparently different) company rang to ask why my Dad hadn't sent the details back. Once again this company was based in America so I (being suspicious) asked her what the company was and why she hadn't asked the "UK offices" to contact us instead. She said she couldn't speak to me as I wasn't the client but she did give me her company name.
So... I'm pretty sure this is a scam. I'm just a) not sure how and b) not really sure where to go from here. The first gentleman gave me a company name that doesn't appear on Google and when I looked up his name it was suspiciously similar to a lawyer from the US who had been disbarred (and was big enough to have a Wikipedia page about it...). The second company name that was given leads to a website that does actually turn up a US law firm but it doesn't seem to have anything to do with shares in a UK company?
I know it's probably a scam and we should ignore it, but it's now opened a whole can of worms - we can't find any of these share certificates or anything else to do with this situation. Should he maybe be seeing someone to sort all this out? I'm not even sure who he'd contact in this situation?
I'm not sure if this is the correct place to put this. I'm very sorry if it's in the wrong area.
Heads up in advance, I'm writing this on behalf of my Dad so some of the details may be vague until I can talk to him again and get them ordered.
A few years ago (10+) my Dad purchased some shares in a company. And... that's pretty much it. He can't remember how many or what the company did or... anything else really. He has a vague memory of the company being bought out (or merging) with another company and he has given me the name of that company but I can't seem to find anything online, so it may be incorrect.
However, a few weeks ago my Dad received a call from an American gentleman telling him that the company he bought shares in was experiencing a hostile takeover and he wanted to buy these shares from my Dad. At the time my Dad was busy so he took a few (unfortunately bare) details and asked for a follow up email. Some documents have arrived but he hasn't read them yet - I also told him not to open them until I'd run a virus scan or something first.
Today whilst my Dad was out another (apparently different) company rang to ask why my Dad hadn't sent the details back. Once again this company was based in America so I (being suspicious) asked her what the company was and why she hadn't asked the "UK offices" to contact us instead. She said she couldn't speak to me as I wasn't the client but she did give me her company name.
So... I'm pretty sure this is a scam. I'm just a) not sure how and b) not really sure where to go from here. The first gentleman gave me a company name that doesn't appear on Google and when I looked up his name it was suspiciously similar to a lawyer from the US who had been disbarred (and was big enough to have a Wikipedia page about it...). The second company name that was given leads to a website that does actually turn up a US law firm but it doesn't seem to have anything to do with shares in a UK company?
I know it's probably a scam and we should ignore it, but it's now opened a whole can of worms - we can't find any of these share certificates or anything else to do with this situation. Should he maybe be seeing someone to sort all this out? I'm not even sure who he'd contact in this situation?
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Comments
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SunnyMorningDays wrote: »He can't remember how many or what the company did or... anything else really. He has a vague memory of the company being bought out (or merging) with another company and he has given me the name of that company but I can't seem to find anything online, so it may be incorrect.
Why did he buy the shares and from who?
Has he ever received any dividends?
What is the name he has given for the "another company"?
You are right to be suspicious of cold callers.
Possibly advanced fee scam. This sort of thing
https://conversation.which.co.uk/money/telephone-share-buying-phone-scam-investment/0 -
Yes, sounding very like an Advance Fee scam.I am one of the Dogs of the Index.0
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Thanks for the reply!
I don't think he told me how he bought the shares. He did say that he saw a tip about them in the paper and that's how he ended up buying them. Thankfully he thinks he may have the certificates from the original company somewhere in his files, so if he can confirm the name I might be able to find out who bought them out and follow the paper trail that way.
As far as I know he hasn't received anything from them, as I'm sure the lack of updates from them is partially why he's forgotten about them.
As for the name - he's wavering between two that he thinks they might be. Unfortunately both are fairly generic and return nothing similar on companies house or Google. He's also unaware of what they did at the time that he bought shares on them, so I can't even narrow it down that way. I'll ask him later when he phones.
Sorry I can't be of more help. Thank you for the link as well. I'll ask him if they've asked for any money. He's fairly clued up on this kind of thing so I can imagine that even if they had they wouldn't get anything.0 -
How did he pay for them? Can you go back through his bank records to see where the money went?0
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SunnyMorningDays wrote: »Sorry I can't be of more help. Thank you for the link as well. I'll ask him if they've asked for any money. He's fairly clued up on this kind of thing so I can imagine that even if they had they wouldn't get anything.
Be very wary. They can be very persuasive with the way they do it - they wouldn't be scammers long if they weren't successful! They'll be offering a lot more than the market value but all he has to do is pay for the admin fees or registration documents and they'll then release the money. Except if you pay you'll hear nothing more apart from perhaps someone trying to get more moneyRemember the saying: if it looks too good to be true it almost certainly is.0 -
Yes, and also he needs to be wary of them collecting a lot of his personal data in the process, possibly before they ask for any money at all.I am one of the Dogs of the Index.0
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