Stagecoach Shares - phone scam?

gonzo24

Looks like this scam is on the rise again. We had a call from someone called Maynes Business Services (maynesservices dot com), supposedly in Seattle, offering to buy our old shares in AI Claims Solutions on behalf of a client wanting to mount a hostile takeover.
Thought it was dodgy because a) the website didn't ring true b) we only have one single share for some reason lost in the mists of time, and c) it was actually converted into shares in another company through a takeover earlier this year!

I did an online search for Maynes Services and "AI Claims Solutions shares" but found nothing relevant, but today had the bright idea of doing a search on "shares phone scams" instead and found this thread and lots of stories where only the names have changed. Glad I came here!

A new feature I haven't seen mentioned in other posts is they now say that your shares may be worth much more due to a forward and reverse split.

Looking forward to hearing how much they will offer me for our non-existent share!

phil470

Bedworth wrote: »

Thanks, all. Just to let you know, this is now being worked with Centrica shares, too. Again the "company" involved is Mullen Cheecks. I work in a library, and had a call from New York - very poor line - the woman kept calling me "Ma'am". They have a client in our area - he's 68, no computer - could he receive a fax here, sign it and send it back? The fax came through, I told a colleague about it, and she said they'd had the same thing at another library and it was a scam. Glad I checked. We can advise the man accordingly. (Though I know from dismal experience that some people go ahead anyway!)

Centrica plc web site states that these scams are unfortunately on the rise. Here's another "company" to be wary of,
'Pacific Ventures Consultancy'
385 Greenwich Street
New York, NY 10013

My wife received a call on Monday 3rd Dec. offering £9 per share as part of a hostile takeover bid, but, a 'Confidential Memorandum Of Non-Disclosure' would have to be signed. Current price £3.37. The caller took my wife's email address and sent her the form. Basically it says that if you accept the offer you can't breath again without their say so. Caller claimed they had 40% of stock from major institutions and that if she didn't take up the offer and the hostile bid was successful her shares would then be worth nothing . I'm not sure my wife's 122 shares were actually worth the phone call which is what first made me wary.

If anyone knows where she can get £9 per share please let me know!

Be ware!

T100

Hi.
These threads helped to prevent me from getting scammed by the HamiltonPricehouse lot last year. I smelt a rat fairly early on (a phonecall offering me large amounts of money for some shares which were virtually worthless), but had already signed a non-disclosure agreement before I twigged. I then played along with the phonecalls for a while, as the price the "client" was willing to pay to get 51% of the company shares to effect a hostile takeover rocketed. Eventually I was going to be offered about £40,000 for these shares, and finally it became clear that I'd need to put forward a 20% bond to make sure neither of us backed out of the agreement.........This is presumably how the scammers make their money.

The reason for this post is that, over the past few days, a company calling themselves Apex International Consulting Group, claiming to call from America, have been desperately trying to get hold of me under the same premise ("our client wants to get 51% of this company's shares for a hostile takeover"). Their rather professional-looking website was only created on 22/05/13 when I checked it, and is registered to someone in Skipton, UK, despite the fact that the firm claims to be based in New York.

Please think very carefully before you have dealings with this "company".
(I've posted this because I didn't get any direct google hits for "Apex International Consulting Group scam". I hope this rectifies this for anyone searching.)

bileyininjurytime

I thought I'd add to this thread with a recent experience - very similar but wanted to make sure other people know the different names it goes under.

I was contacted last January 2014 by Bauer BPO Services LLC on behalf of their client trying to buy shares in Blue Planet Investments, to effect a hostile takeover (all the same blarney as posters have shown above). I'm pretty financially literate but a combination of curiosity, greed and inability to find anything about them on the web led me to have the NDA emailed to me. Bauer had a credible website and official-looking NDA. At that point I found something on the web that warned me off (why would someone offer 10x share value on a publicly traded share?) I felt daft having got that far. It was suggested that the scam would eventually offer some sort of bond (worthless) alongside a small cash settlement but I never got that far. When I got a call back from one of Bauer BPO 'lawyers' I asked several times if I would get a straight cash settlement - they eventually hung up.

Last week (Feb 2015) I had a call from another company (sorry didn't get their name), again on behalf of client wanting my Blue Planet Investment shares. It was an identical spiel. I let her run on for 5 minutes, asked several questions about why they don't just buy the shares on the open market etc, and she gave very convincing answers. When she eventually got to requesting an email for the NDA I gave her a rant about the scam (it made me feel a bit better).

So, just to say, it's an active and ongoing scam. Thanks to this site for clarifying what the scam is! :T