Mis-sold shares scam?

billysboots

I bought some penny shares through a company called City Equities about 8 years ago, this company has now been shut down due to improper conduct. I have been contacted by 3 different companies, one in particular called "Mis-Sold Shares Ltd" informing me I'm entitled to my money back due to City Equities mis-selling the shares to me. They have told me they work on a no win, no fee basis but will take 20% of any money won back.

Does anyone know if this company (Mis-Sold Shares Ltd) is genuine or is it all a scam?

Many thanks for any advice you can provide.

McKneff

Would the company you bought the shares from have any assets for you to get your money back.....
I would be very wary and tend to treat it like a scam.


How did they know you had shares by the way

kai666

How were they mis-sold?

bowlhead99

City Equities are in administration per the FCA website. Then per the FSCS website last week:

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) is now able to start processing claims against City Equities Limited. As mentioned in our November update, the stockbroker firm was placed into the special administration regime on 11 October 2013 and placed in default under FSCS on the same day.
FSCS expects to complete claims it has received to date within the next six months, and may need to contact claimants if more information is needed when assessing claims.
Claimants that are yet to make a claim can contact the FSCS Initial Contact Team on freephone 0800 678 1100 or 020 7741 4100 to request an application form.

Somewhat entertainingly (I'm easily amused...) your prospective claims management company Mis-Sold Shares Ltd has the full text of that FSCS November update on their website. With all the contact details of the FSCS saying you can contact them freephone to make a claim.

So, it would seem like if you thought you had a cat in hell's chance of getting any reasonable sums of money out of them for the misselling, based on the documentation you have from those days when you lost the money, and it was not so long ago that you should have complained about it ages ago if you were dissatisfied with City Equities - you would just launch a claim direct and not pay the 20%.

In order to make a claim via the ambulance chasers, you would need to outline the facts and circumstances and personal information and the evidence from the time, and they would arrange it for you and hopefully not abuse their position and turn out to be a cowboy, and would hopefully not have some small print admin fee about what you pay them on top of the 20% etc etc.

If you actually do have some facts and circumstances about how they sold you some shares after providing you with proper advice that turned out to be inappropriate (rather than just giving you some information about the shares which you then chose to buy on an execution-only basis without formal 'advice') - then you might have a claim, but you might as well put it together yourself and pay nothing, rather than put it together yourself and give it to the ambulance chaser who puts it in pretty wrapping paper and claims 20% of any returns.

I have invested in some shares over the years that had potential but turned out to be dogs, but I can't claim that I did it under regulated advice because it wouldn't be true. So you would have to be realistic about whether you were 'missold' or just greedy in seeing big dollar signs in front of your eyes and making a bad decision.

billysboots

@McNeff that's what I was thinking & similarly your thoughts @kai666. I knew they were penny shares & a lot riskier than say purchasing stock in M&S, so how could I then claim compensation if they didn't do well? That's why I thought it might be a scam.

lozzy1965

billysboots wrote: »

@McNeff that's what I was thinking & similarly your thoughts @kai666. I knew they were penny shares & a lot riskier than say purchasing stock in M&S, so how could I then claim compensation if they didn't do well? That's why I thought it might be a scam.

If they were penny shares, in a legit company, then I can't see why you should be able to claim compensation. You still own the shares if the company hasn't gone bust. If it has, that's the risk with penny shares. If they were bogus shares in a made up company, then I can see why you might be able to claim. That's just me being logical though! Might be incorrect as far as the law is concerned!

vectistim

Here is a motley thread on them:
http://boards.fool.co.uk/mis-sold-shares-ltd-12850806.aspx?sort=whole#12850806

Their website seems to use random stock images, and the photo of the chap on their twitter I'm sure is from a mail order clothes store.

One company director gives an off-shore address:
https://www.opencompany.co.uk/company/08156716/missold-shares-limited
and has 22 other entries listed on duedil.

The other company director 23 other entries (if I've added them correctly) and has recently started a new company Mis-Led, with the person whose name is given on the Mis-sold twitter account.

And finally a newbie turns up on a thread that's been dormant for 4 months extolling the virtues of the company being discussed.

It is left as an exercise for the reader to reach their own conclusions.