Urgent Help: SCAM or NOT?

john269

Hi,

I was called at my old house a few days back and the caller been calling daily so my family member still living there passed on my new number. Therefore got the call from the international company straight away, it's about shares in a company that I purchased over 12 yrs ago. The company got taken over a few times or something anyway, this cold caller international company said a private investor from the UK wants to purchase 51% stake in the company, apparently the last time the company got taken over the management only moved over and all the assets that are worth millions are still in the shareholders names, and this investor in the UK wants to hold 51% of the shareholding so he/she can take and use the assets. I've been told that my shares will be purchased from this UK company who is aiming to get 51% shareholding and I could be paid over 1000% of what I paid for them back in the day. The thing is, I only have today to get the form in where I have to put rough date I purchased them, and a few other details about the shares plus my signature. They are not asking for any money, I'm just wondering if this is likely to be a scam. I am not allowed to disclosed any of the information so will not mention any names or companies involved. The thing is the international company that called me that are doing the acquisition knew my name, my old phone number, the amount of shares I hold and also the company name.

My concern is that if it's legit and I don't go for it then I could have lost thousands, but if I go for it, then they may be fraud and aim to hack my banks. They want my signature on this current form and then further down the line they most likely would want bank details so the funds can be transferred over. If I don't submit the stuff today then I will not be part of the 51% of the shares that person is purchasing and will not get anything back as my shares would be worthless still.

I've been spoken to by 2 different people from this US International company now and they both do not have US accents either.

This smells fishy to me, but not sure, what do you guys think.

doe808

Scam, imo. But with out the company details cant be 100%.

So only 99% a scam at this stage

TCA

Trace who now owns the company you bought shares in and ask them directly.

Reaper

Don't need to know the name of the company, this is a well known scam. Further down the line once you have taken the bait you will need to pay tax/indemnity/release etc money. It's advanced fee fraud.

All your details came from the share register. I bet you owned the shares directly instead of via a Nominee account.

EDIT: One of many links:
http://conversation.which.co.uk/money/telephone-share-buying-phone-scam-investment/

TCA

john269 wrote: »

I am not allowed to disclosed any of the information so will not mention any names or companies involved.

As Reaper said, all the info they have will be from the shares register. The fact that they're telling you not to disclose any information is a dead give-away. I'd still be interested to know who owns the company now in case they're worth anything!

dav964

100% scam. Have been called by these people many times...

coyrls

john269 wrote: »

....cold caller ... international company .....If I don't submit the stuff today then I will not be part of the 51% of the shares that person is purchasing and will not get anything back as my shares would be worthless still.....This smells fishy to me

All the above should be red warning signs.

jimjames

100% scam. No need for company name or details. Cold call and MO is enough to know.

john269

Thanks guys, I get scam and fraud emails and all that malarky daily, but rarely get people calling me with information on what I own.

It sounded so much like a scam, I even confronted them about if it was a scam or not because their company website domain was purchased just over a month ago which shouted alarm bells to me. But when I said it to the person he made up some reason why it was, more alarm bells.

Can't disclose or talk about it to others shouted out alarm bells aswell.

If you guys didn't reply today via the deadline which was funny that the deadline happened to be today so they tried also putting pressure on me, then I would have not gone ahead anyway as I had to many doubts.

They guy started turning a bit rood and funny on the phone when I started mentioning about scam, their website, and all that, I did do some research before hand and then finally came here.

Thanks a lot guys.

Malthusian

Definitely a scam.

1) As a shareholder, you owned a share in the whole business. Management, assets, all of it. When whoever took over the company bought your shares, they bought the lot. It's not possible to only buy the management because some idiot solicitor drafted the agreement wrong - either they bought the shares off you or they didn't. If there was some kind of error which this genius private investor has spotted, you would be unable to sell your ghost shares, because there would be an almighty wrangle in the courts.

2) If it was legit there wouldn't be all this cloak-and-dagger stuff.

this investor in the UK wants to hold 51% of the shareholding so he/she can take and use the assets.

3) Pointless. If his plan is to asset strip the company, to sell the assets off - ignoring the fact that stock exchanges usually require you to bid for 100% of the shares once you acquire a cetain percentage - he'd only own 51% of the proceeds and the investors who didn't sell would get the other 49%. And why would they sell their shares to him for less than they would expect to receive from the asset-stripping? By not taking up this brilliant deal you'd lose nothing. Abject nonsense on a stick.

redux

You could think your way around this and do some research.

Is this a listed or unlisted company?

If listed, look up the current value of the shares, and see if it is up by the multiple you've been told.

You could do an internet search to see if there is any takeover action rumoured.

Or contact the company itself to ask.

How did you buy the shares? Contact the scheme admin or registrar and ask if anything official is happening.

It all sounds fairly unlikely.

And remember your way back through old investments, and update the relevant schemes with your new address. I'd forgotten and missed doing this with a couple, and had pleasant surprises earlier this year.