Someone wants to buy our Shares but think its a scam - can anyone help?

blipols_2 · 20 February 2009 at 10:45PM

Can anyone help please? My husband bought shares around 15 years ago, maybe more (pre children!) in a company called 'Westminster Scaffolding'. They were eventually bought over by Motion Poster PLC but I understand shares were suspended in 2002 (whatever that means). Anyway, we thought they were worthless but a couple of months ago a company called Taylor Grant Associates (USA) phoned saying they had a client wishing to buy our shares. To cut a long story short, they first said we would realise £1000 then a few calls later they said they were actually worth around £70,000. We were obviously delighted but dubious. After research on internet, we found out this company had ripped off a gentleman who had to part with £6,000 before the money was released and he sent the money and never received anything from them. So as you can imagine, we didn't sign the contract they sent us and politely told them where to go.

Tonight I had a call from Schneider Wolfe Alliance Group (also USA) who also want to buy our shares. I explained that we had a request from a company previously and it turned out to be a scam as we would have lost money. She assured me that we would not have to part with anything and although the company (Motion Poster) was not worth anything, the shares were rich in assets. Something also to do with tax related trade? She gave me a website address: www.schneider-wolfe.com but funnily enough it is under construction. She sounded genuine, but after the last experience, I don't know if this is genuine or not.

Do you know or would you be able to find out and advise me what to do? If there is money to be re-couped from these shares, we would definitely sell, but cannot afford to take an risk.
Thanks for your time.

Browntoa · 20 February 2009 at 10:48PM

looks like a scam

site only registered 2009-02-16

hidden ownership

fax number given on the site , 1 (212) 214-0626, actually used by

http://www.novonordisk.com/old/press/perspective/2002November/2.html

North America:
Rasmus Jorgensen
Novo Nordisk Pharmaceuticals Inc
Phone: +1 212 582 3676
Fax: +1 212 214 0626

address 170 Hudson Street

is either a Bank or a Coffee shop

FraudBuster · 20 February 2009 at 11:24PM

You can get downloads from Companies House for £1.

Name & Registered Office:
MOTIONPOSTER PLC
206 CANALOT STUDIOS
222 KENSAL ROAD
LONDON
W10 5BN
Company No. 01998781

Status: Active - Proposal to Strike off
Date of Incorporation: 12/03/1986

Country of Origin: United Kingdom
Company Type: Public Limited Company
Nature of Business (SIC(03)):
7440 - Advertising
Accounting Reference Date: 30/06
Last Accounts Made Up To: 30/06/2005 (GROUP)
Next Accounts Due: 30/01/2007 OVERDUE
Last Return Made Up To: 27/03/2006
Next Return Due: 24/04/2007 OVERDUE
Last Members List: 27/03/2006
Last Bulk Shareholders List: 27/03/2006 Insolvency History Previous Names:Date of changePrevious Name29/03/2000WESTMINSTER SCAFFOLDING GROUP PLC16/06/1986FETTLELAND LIMITED[URL="javascript:popup('/goWCK/help/en/stdwc/branchDetails_H.html',500,500);"]Branch Details[/URL] There are no branches associated with this company.[URL="javascript:popup('/goWCK/help/en/stdwc/overseaCompDet_H.html',500,500);"]Oversea Company Info[/URL] There are no Oversea Details associated with this company.

On_the_Loose · 3 March 2009 at 7:49PM

Schneider-Wolfe are still going strong!

They asked me to sign a confidentiality Agreement to sell shares in Georgica. They already had 41% and offered $30 a share. They then said that after a 10-1 stock split I owned ten times the number of shares, now worth £111,000!

All I had to do was pay a refundable insurance premium of 2% of the value. I said that I had lost interest.

Steer clear! They are a boiler room.

Austin_Ratcliffe · 8 March 2009 at 10:41AM

Good morning all,
Just to commend the provider of this website as this has now given me ease of mind not to reply to an approach by Schneider Wolfe Alliance Group to buy my Motion Poster shares. Exactly the same circumstances as applied to the first complainant registered has happened to me about three weeks ago. I will now tell them where to get off.
Thanks again

tradetime · 8 March 2009 at 1:48PM

May be worth keeping all such correspondance and passing it on to the police if you feel it is fraudulent, they may or may not be interested, but should be.

nrsql · 8 March 2009 at 5:39PM

Thought I had already posted this.
Send it to Tony Heatherington as well. He like to keep track of such companies.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/columnists/article.html?in_page_id=19&in_article_id=426175&in_author_id=5

liverpoolou · 9 March 2009 at 10:26PM

I also received a phone call offering the same, luckily I could not fill in the required form as my settings would not allow it, as I was ready to deal with them. They phone me at least 3 times a day asking for me to reply. Thanks I will now tell them it is a no go

Reaper · 10 March 2009 at 1:00AM

The FSA web site has plenty of info on share scams. e.g...

If you already own shares in a company, including those traded on AIM, you may receive a call from someone offering to buy your shares, usually at a higher price than their market value. If the price of your shares is low, the offer will probably sound very attractive to you. They will also ask you to pay something up front, as a bond or other form of security, which they say you'll get back if the sale doesn't go ahead. They could also ask you to sign a form preventing you from disclosing details of the offer.

Don't be fooled by such an approach! It's probably no more than an advance fee scam – where you give them your money and never hear back from them again. They can be very persistent, phoning you many times and even sending you documents or forms to complete.

Only deal with firms registered by the FSA or you are not covered by the FSCS if anything happens. You can check whether the company calling you is registered on their web site here.

IFA1 · 16 March 2009 at 5:24PM

One of our clients has contacted us regarding Schneider-Wolfe. He too received an offer to purchase his shares, with the condition that he first paid a relatively modest insurance premium. A little bit of investigation revealed S-W's website to be an exact copy of one belonging to Jacob Stuart & Knight.

JS&K are well known, and have their own listing on the FSA website. You can find them under "Unauthorised firms operating in the UK".

We have a number of concerns regarding Schneider-Wolfe and have passed these on to the relevant department at the FSA.

If Schneider-Wolfe contact you you might care to question them about the above duplication of websites. As an investment professional, I can assure you that it is somewhat unusual, and I would be interested to hear their explanation.

djp123 · 17 March 2009 at 4:07PM

schneider-wolfe should be avoided at all costs, as far as I can see it's all very dodgy, they called me out of the blue offering a huge amount of money for worthless shares, and wanted 8% of transaction up front as insurance, beware!!

Someone wants to buy our Shares but think its a scam - can anyone help?

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