Shares buying, scam or legit?

repofire

I'm highly suspicious of this as this offer seems to good to be true and doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

My father owns a number of shares in a UK firm, not a huge amount and they're of very little value per share.

On Friday he got a call from a US firm claiming to be buying up this company's shares on behalf of a client. The amount they're offering per share is way way more than they're worth.

I've checked current trading on the UK company's shares and they're pretty much doing nothing.

This US firm has sent a mail with an attached NDA to be filled in. This is a Wall Street firm and although all the information appears to be correct looking in the email header the return path and sender parts give gmail.com addresses.

I'm highly suspicious this a scam but can't find any information of this type on the net.

Has anyone any experience of this sort of thing?

Next stop will be to call up the firm and see if they know anything about it.

Thanks,
Peter

cheerfulcat

Hi, Peter

Definitely a scam; don't touch it.

Techno

Could be linked to one of the boiler room scams??

Jake'sGran

Hello Peter, An unsolicited call from anyone offering to buy shares is bound to be a scam. Any legitimate business would contact him in writing and even then he would need to check them out. Don't bother calling them - why waste your money? Ignore them or, if you want to be extra sure one of the brokers on line might respond to an email enquiring about this company. You could even ask the FSA (Financial Services Authority) and include a copy of the email you mentioned. They like to know about these scams.

steve1981_2

Total scam, they would have got the details from a public register. Then once they have you hooked, they will ask for bank details and other things to commit fraud. Stay well away.

If you have the time report it.

Optimist

If it sounds too good to be true then it probably is.

Stay well away and never take any notice of unsolicited calls

ManAtHome

Not easy to find, but more details here http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/columnists/article.html?in_article_id=419380&in_page_id=19&in_author_id=5

repofire

I did find some info on this scam http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article1582395.ece

It's identical apart from the shares we have are for Hartest Holdings. Qonnectis share holders may well be targeted as well as that name was wrongly given with the email we received.

I've passed on the details to the FSA, SMG, Hartest and Qonnectis so that's my good deed done for the day

Many thanks for your help all

Peter

lpc_3

What you describe is the very definition of a boiler room scam

repofire

Is it? Damn

All the searches came up as attempting to sell you shares.

ManAtHome

Yes, most of the searches do come up with "phase 1" boiler room scam - flogging non-investment grade shares.

Tony Heatherington has done a couple of pieces about this lastest one (offering high prices), but even though I'd read them, took a bit of digging to find the recent one, and couldn't find the earler one at all (only from a few weeks ago). This one's more like a variation of the 419/advance-fee scams (you can have many millions from Nigeria if you send them a few quid...).