ProSearch Scam

Marconi

I am very grateful to all your contributors for the information above.
We have received several puzzling communications from Prosearch regarding unclaimed Cable and Wireless dividends worth £52.50. In the most recent letter (received in January) it says at question 9 of the Q & A section that their admin fee is 12.5% of the cash value recovered (plus VAT).

I phoned the Cable and Wireless registrar today and discovered that the dividend goes back to 2000, though I am not sure why we didn't receive it then as our address has not changed. I have agreed with the C & W registrar that they will send the money direct to me, minus an admin fee of £15, which I have agreed to, to avoid any more hassle, though this is more than Prosearch seem to be charging now, according to their latest conditions.

goldeneagle69

We just received a letter from ProSearch saying that my wife is owed £111.76 in old Zurich Financial Services CDI's and that for a fee of 12.5% (+vat) they will send us a cheque.

Reading the comments above it would seem that we would be lucky to receive any money at all. The letter says that the Zurich company closed in December 2007 and the money is for sale proceeds or dividends. This does ring a bell so I don't doubt what they are saying.

hjwh above says not to deal with ProSearch, but to go to the registrar direct. Who is this registrar and how do we contact them? The letter says that there is a closing date of 06 April 2012. Does that mean that we have to sort this out before then or will lose out totally?

Many thanks in advance.

simonm_3

Just had a letter from prosearch and went immediately on line and came here 1st. Great advice and comments, very sad for those who did get caught out but thank you for posting your experiences.

Phoned up equiniti (used saynoto0870 to find the non 0871 number) and they are sending the relevant docs directly.

Wouldn't have a problem using an intermediary but not if there is a risk of them getting everything. Okay they have costs - not many by all accounts, but there is a limit!

Peasant

simonm wrote: »

Just had a letter from prosearch and went immediately on line and came here 1st. Great advice and comments, very sad for those who did get caught out but thank you for posting your experiences.

Phoned up equiniti (used saynoto0870 to find the non 0871 number) and they are sending the relevant docs directly.

Wouldn't have a problem using an intermediary but not if there is a risk of them getting everything. Okay they have costs - not many by all accounts, but there is a limit!

Phoned Equiniti on 141 0121 415 7047 got straight through to helpful lady sorted everything cheques are in the post with no deductions:beer::j. She confirmed that Prosearch are related to Equiniti. Obviously set up for those who can't be bothered to do the leg work such as solicitors who will then make a further charge:mad:

Poppicker

Glad to see Prosearch shown up for what it is. I constantly get letters from them and at first sight the 12.5% seemed tempting. However, I got more suspicious when Prosearch started to give me deadlines and extending them. I started to think will I, won't I. People can be clever in criticising those who fall for this but if Prosearch don't make it clear that their commission could include shares then it's understandable. It's only because people have fallen for this and let others know that we can make a more informed choice. Now their letters will definitely go straight in the bin! My thanks to MSE and contributers.

Wyle_Cop

Morning Folks

New on here because I too have had a letter from ProSearch. Of course it's a scam, but possibly a semi-scam and as us humans are generally fairly trusting by nurture I would like to know more. My letter is addressed to my recently deceased mother and only refers to a 'connection with unclaimed entitlements'. Does anyone know where to go other than ProSearch {obviously} to find out what 'entitlements' might be out there? She had no shares that I know of and what/who is this Registrar as referred to earlier in the thread?

Thanks
Wyle Cop

RustyKent_2

You say you do not have the time to do the legwork but this post must have taken a good few hours to compile/research when you could have been getting on with it. I think you may have a vested interest Gotabrain.

And as for criticising the person who would have been upset by recieving a letter in a deceased relatives name. For lords sake - who do you think you are.

rosiepops1

I received a letter today headed Santander, to tell me that i held 100 Abbey National shares that apparently was cancelled, it tells me that i am entitled to £494.62p in dividends, and that i have an entitlement to 100 Santander CDIs, the letter has my correct name and address on it, but then i noticed that it had a previous address that certainly is not mine. This made me a little weary, also, ProSearch charge a 10% fee. Do i ring them on Monday and ask if they have the wrong person? or do i just put this letter into the trash with my details taken off it?
best regards

mommacrim

RustyKent, I agree that post was particularly suspect.

Rosiepops1, I have just had a cheque sent to me with nearly 50% of my late Grandmother's money taken off and called an 'admin fee'. I doubt you will get anything from them. Exactly the same, Santander shares.

Write to Santander yourself, and save the letter in case you need to refer to it only. Forward your concerns to the FOS and OFT (see below).

It's been quite distressing to know that someone is exploiting my Grandmother's estate in this way. My mother is severely disabled and her care costs are sky high, not to mention time consuming. We need that money so very much, and are still grieving. They have shown no compassion in dealing with my enquiries, when I have shown distress or shown that I have wanted to complain, which increasingly proves that these proceedings really are bullish and negligent toward consumers.

To the lady who mentioned her husband's brain tumor not getting in the way of him using his mind, great and good for him. I doubt everyone with a brain tumor is able to use their mind in the same way, however. There are many vulnerable people being taking advantage of here. So feel blessed, but do not throw around ignorant talk that only perpetuates the wrongdoings that are taking place here, all for the sake of your own ego.

Prosearch sell the concept of social responsibility to clients like Santander, but are far from transparent when dealing with the customers of those clients....You might understand from the literature that 10% doesn't refer to, in my Grandmother's case, the c.£500 worth of shares that had not been communicated to me when I advised Santander of my Grandmother's death... you might, where i didn't, gather that it would amount to a fee of c.£240 which is nearly 50%, but you would have to know about shares first.

you can see on prosearch's website that they offer this as a free service to clients such as BT and Santander, by preying on their customers and shareholders and, clearly, upsetting a lot of people: put "product1-asset" and "prosearch" into google and you'll find the service advertised on their website.

Anyone who receives a letter should be complaining to the FOS and the OFT explicating that you do not condone or accept this sort of systematic, active scamming, and should refer to this forum:

as a new user I couldn't post links, so..
-type "fos complaints_a1" into google and you should get the page that details the Financial Ombudsman's email to complain to

-type "oft enquiries email" and you should get the page with an email for the Office of Fair Trading.

I have more respect for crackhead burglars than for anyone involved in pushing this kind of activity forward. These companies know what they are doing to people.

love and well-wishes.

Footloose49

This is more about the financial services companies finding ways of keeping as much of what they owe us. It's obvious that they should not bear the cost of repatriating people with money they are entitled to, but that doesn't mean they should be able to get away with charging such high fees for this service. The banking industry seems to think that unlike anyone else, they can operate in a win-win environment, where only bonuses are paid, whilst not imposing any penalties for under-performance. I can't think of any other industry which operates in this manner, and it's about time the financial services Industry realised/accepted that these kinds of practices just aren't acceptable anymore.