Lloyds Action Now - are they genuine?

jackieb185

I have some Lloyds shares and just received a mailing from a group called Lloyds Action Now - the letter states that they are attempting to raise a group action against Lloyds to get compensation for the loss of equity on their shares, claiming that they were misled by Lloyds, HBOS, governement etc over the merger of Lloyds and HBOS and had they known all the facts would have had a chance to oppose the merger, or at the lease sell their shares before they crashed (currently worth about 70p per share, previously about £4 per share).
The letter is well written and looks professional but they are asking for money to be included in the group action, the amount you pay is based on the number of shares you have, but it is several hundred pounds (£264.38 joining fee plus 3 pence per share). but are claiming you could get compensation of £2 per share to justify the cost.
they also say if you don't join their group then you would not be entitled to any compensation, should they win their case.
It all sounds very plausible, right up until they asked for money, I usually dismiss these things as scams, but this time I am not so sure.

Has anyone heard of this group, are they genuine or not? I would welcome your feedback.

thanks
J

Chadsman

I'm sure they genuinely want your money.

Genuine or not IMHO the chances of happening what they say they want to happen is low.

datostar

When the Labour government expropriated Railtrack shares a similar organisation was formed. In the event, compensation was paid to all shareholders regardless of membership of pressure groups etc. Pressure from large institutional investors, especially from North America, was far more influential than organisations of small shareholders, who, in the great scheme of things, don't count for very much. I seem to remember one particularly unpleasant Labourite making a patronising comment about 'grannies losing their blouses'.

caveat_emptor

Genuine. There's a load of stuff on their website about the claim but I couldn't see anything about cost to shareholder but I'm sure it's there somewhere.

Jake'sGran

datostar wrote: »

When the Labour government expropriated Railtrack shares a similar organisation was formed. In the event, compensation was paid to all shareholders regardless of membership of pressure groups etc. Pressure from large institutional investors, especially from North America, was far more influential than organisations of small shareholders, who, in the great scheme of things, don't count for very much. I seem to remember one particularly unpleasant Labourite making a patronising comment about 'grannies losing their blouses'.

I was really upset about this one and don't remember any compensation being paid - must have been very little! And I am a Granny and some years have gone by!

Loughton_Monkey

This may well be a well-meaning group, but in my view, almost destined to failure. Your little 'contribution' will pile up with others, and will be used to grease the palms of some equally well-meaning (but hard up and greedy) lawyers with the most alarming capacity to eat up fees at £10,000 an hour.

Now, what you have to ask yourself, is what chance this little aggrieved bunch have against the might of Lloyds's lawyers, who fully understand the budget constraints of these little tribes of 'chip on shoulder merchants' and will therefore delay, obfuscate, and confound them to the very end.

If there is any sensible ground (and optimism) to sue the corporate ar**se off Lloyds, then try to leave it to the fund managers and corporate investors who arguably might have the resources to take them on.

Another thing. I'll lay my own £264.38 that the little guy behind all this has a lawer in the family. A hungry one. Theirin lies the scam.

psb

Its a SCAM - stay away from it! Anything thats asks for money up front is probably a scam and anyway if were genuine then any money that had to be returned would be returned to all concerned not just those that had added their money to try for compensation.
As regards their website, when would you not see a great website if they were going to try and scam people out of money? A great website costs very little to set up when you know the right people.

crumpsall

My wife & I both own Lloyds shares - only she has received the mailing so far. It seems to be similar in design to the one that has done the rounds about RBS.
Both are heavily caveated with the "IF we go to court". They are higly unlikley to be able to gather enough money to sustain any action in the light of procrastination by the banks, government and FSA's lawyers, all of whom will oppose a settlement.
On a personal note, I do not rate lawyers who don't proof-read their outgoing mail :-
pp4 'causes' instead of 'courses'
pp5(2) 'awarded' instead of 'award'
pp5 (2) 'could had' instead of 'could have had'
(nor do I like them ending that sentence with a preposition, but accept that this is now, regretfully, seen as a matter of style rather than good grammar!).
Has all the signs of being put together in a rush - the only ones guaranteed to make money out of it are the prime movers. At the end of the day, it is the big institutional investors (pension funds etc) who have the clout to take action were such a possibility to have a realistic chance of success.

jackieb185 wrote: »

I have some Lloyds shares and just received a mailing from a group called Lloyds Action Now - the letter states that they are attempting to raise a group action against Lloyds to get compensation for the loss of equity on their shares, claiming that they were misled by Lloyds, HBOS, governement etc over the merger of Lloyds and HBOS and had they known all the facts would have had a chance to oppose the merger, or at the lease sell their shares before they crashed (currently worth about 70p per share, previously about £4 per share).
The letter is well written and looks professional but they are asking for money to be included in the group action, the amount you pay is based on the number of shares you have, but it is several hundred pounds (£264.38 joining fee plus 3 pence per share). but are claiming you could get compensation of £2 per share to justify the cost.
they also say if you don't join their group then you would not be entitled to any compensation, should they win their case.
It all sounds very plausible, right up until they asked for money, I usually dismiss these things as scams, but this time I am not so sure.

Has anyone heard of this group, are they genuine or not? I would welcome your feedback.

thanks
J

datostar

Jake'sGran wrote: »

I was really upset about this one and don't remember any compensation being paid - must have been very little! And I am a Granny and some years have gone by!

Compensation was paid in three tranches and was quite generous. My Railtrack shares were in a Single Company PEP at the time with Barclays Stockbrokers. A total of £2.605 compensation per share was paid between 2003 and 2005. How did you hold your shares? If certificated the Registrars should still be able to pay. If in a nominee account somewhere, take it up with the brokers.

timmeroo

At last - Thank You - I've found somewhere that has something to say about this LAN thing. I've been hunting high and low for some outsider info and I've even e-mailed uksa for an opinion and heard nothing.

I must say I am highly sceptical of such groups who seem to suddenley pop up when they want your money. Like a previous poster has said, the Directors, Treasury et al can procrastinate ad infinitum before there is ever an answer, by which time we will hopefully be back in the market place recieving our Divs - scrip divs in my case.

However, I would like to read of a few more views on this matter to make a more fuller informed opinion as I, like many others, am completely in the dark over this one.

dealer_wins

Of course its a total scam. Nearly EVERYTHING which requires an upfront payment for the promise of more back later is a scam.

And it was a decision made by the shareholders themselves, as Lloyds shareholders voted overwhelmingly to accept the merger, I think it was over 90% yes if I remember. As a Lloyds employee of 20 years with loads of shares I lost a fortune but c'est la vie, !!!!!! happens.