Equiniti - is this a legitimate letter?

fozzeh

Stu1, sorry chap but it's a very hard thing to try sort out.

They can't send something giving away too much information as the addressee may have moved. That would leave the company open to fraud. They have to get you to contact them, confirm that you are who you are and work it that way. When I did it, I included contacts at the scheme operators and the company HR department it concerned (as these were AESOP's).

Busylady_3

Hi. I'm new to this site, but it's been very useful. My mum received this letter too. It was addressed to my father who passed away in 2006. We have no knowledge of any shares he held with this company. I had told mum to send death cert, marriage cert, & utility bill. Though after reading some of these messages I am wondering if this is wise.

Does anyone have a useful email address for them as the one I sent was returned undeliverable?

Thanks

Stu1

I've just had my e-mail responded to with, guess what? The contents of the letter and the phone message. Pure stinking this is! I'm sending nothing. Like in many households, my father wouldn't have dared make any investment without running it past my mother anyway. She can't think of anything that she wouldn't know about. And knowing my dad, he wouldn't have even picked up a phone that rang let alone made an investment of some sort. Just because that paragraph exists in the letter re phoning them, it doesn't warrant just repeating the same message over again. If it is useless to call, they should not be providing a phone number so you can call. Stinking, pure stinking.

Anyone reading the positive comments regarding Equiniti please remember they are only as credible as the rest of the posts.

YorkshireTraveller

Stu1 wrote: »

I've just had my e-mail responded to with, guess what? The contents of the letter and the phone message. Pure stinking this is! I'm sending nothing. Like in many households, my father wouldn't have dared make any investment without running it past my mother anyway. She can't think of anything that she wouldn't know about. And knowing my dad, he wouldn't have even picked up a phone that rang let alone made an investment of some sort. Just because that paragraph exists in the letter re phoning them, it doesn't warrant just repeating the same message over again. If it is useless to call, they should not be providing a phone number so you can call. Stinking, pure stinking.

Anyone reading the positive comments regarding Equiniti please remember they are only as credible as the rest of the posts.

Perhaps your father had some shares in a company share scheme that just accrued over time, or received shares as part of one of the privatisations in the 1980's?

My former employers (one of the biggest UK plc's) share scheme is now handled and administered by Equiniti (used to be Lloyds TSB), I have found them to be a competent and helpful organisation.

Hope this helps.

Stu1

I've just called the number on their website. I actually was honoured with human contact. Although the person I spoke to had obviously been told to say what was in the letter and to refuse to give any further information. I said this was extremely suspicious, that they are asking for highly personal information before providing anything to warrant it. I said that I was not sending anything and that I was going to take the matter up with the financial services. I also told them I found the letter rudely insensitive. The guy said, "That's up to you, sir." I've worked in finance a long time. I don't trust anyone who approaches customer service like that under the regulation of the FSA, and who lets an unhappy potential customer walk away unsatisfied with the result of the contact.

m0n3y_3

As others have mentioned here Equiniti www.equiniti.com are a real established UK company who deal with the registration of shares (and employee benefits and pensions), they have a division that I have used to buy and sell shares over the internet www.shareview.co.uk. I have phoned them several times, and I found their helpdesk to be quite abrupt and rude, which would fit in with the style of these letters. The business address that these letters want you to send documents back to is West Sussex which also fits with the details, as does a previous post with them previously being known as Lloyds TSB Registrars.

Busylady_3

Perhaps I should contact the FSA. What is everyone else intending to do?

I am dreading telling my mother as she will become very anxious. Are all the receipients older? If so that is even more suspicious.

Stu1

OK calm down...

I've called the FSA and had a long conversation about this. They've been inundated with calls. They talked me over what to look for if I suspect a scam. And the gave me a phone number for the company's head office 01903 833 457, that only they have. Calling it gets you directly through to Equniti's complaints team. Despite everything I've said about the appalling letter, e-mail, telephone message, phone conversation above, the lady I spoke to was very helpful indeed. I'm sure you understand I'm respecting her privacy by not naming her here. Anyway, she told me that my father has an investment they hold, and that a year ago they actually wrote to my mother requesting further information. My mother can't remember any such letter. So this woman has reissued it to her, and it details the investment they are talking about (although she would not tell me anything about it - which is the correct way to go about things...) When my mother gets the re-sent letter, we'll decide what to do.

I commented to the lady at HO about the standard of the letter, and the phone number that costs 8p per minute but which is useless, and she really couldn't comment because all she knew was that the letter had gone out, and that it has not been well received at all. That is an understatement. As I cannot be bothered, I won't be formally complaining about it. But it is complaint worthy and they know it.

Hope this helps anyone currently worried about it. It's not a scam. It's just an extremely poorly executed campaign.

jimjames

Surely it is a good thing that Equiniti are contacting people about lost investments? Alternatively they could just ignore the fact that they have unclaimed shares, wait 5 years (or whatever the time limit) sell them and give the proceeds to charity.

Nothing in the information given so far gives an indication it is a scam; sadly most of the scams listed on MSE are posted by people who want to believe they are true. This is a genuine way to claim back some money you may actually be owed and gets labelled as a scam!!

Eco_Miser

jimjames wrote: »

Nothing in the information given so far gives an indication it is a scam;

Let's consider that:

• Anything that looks too good to be true, probably is.
• They say they have an investment, which the recipient can't remember having.
• They want identification of precisely the type that we are warned to take care of, as they can be used for identity traud.
• They have set a deadline for action after which costs will be incurred.
• They refuse to discuss the matter further until they have the ID documents.

That's just screaming 'scam!'

OTOH,

• seaching for equiniti shows that it is a large and respected company, who may well be searching for the lost owners of investments they hold. Not that every communication purporting to come from a financial institution actually does so.
• Financial institutions are, sadly, well-know for failing to prove their identity adequately in communications, while expecting their customers to jump through all sorts of hoops before even speaking to them.

So no it won't be a scam, but it sure looks like one at first glance.