Trafficmaster Shares - Scam or No?

Borrower71

I have owned 90 or so shares in Trafficmaster for years but am now just getting repeated calls from California (supposedly) with "Margarita" wittering on about my being a long-term shareholder and a deal whereby, as such, I am being invited to sell my shares in the process of the Company being subject to a takeover where confidentiality is paramount.
Much mention is made of a legal agent acting as go-between and an attractive offer of a 5-1 share offer of between £115 and £120 per share!!
This obviously sounds too good to be true and the rub comes with the latest explanation (which. apparently, can ONLY be conducted by phone....mmmm!!) that the seller is being given a good deal by only being required to cough up 15% of the transaction price with the takeover firm being required to place an 85% proportion - each refundable on completion. Normally it would be a 70%/30% split but the independent agent has reportedly negotiated with the insurance companies underwriting the deal (quoted as being AXA Life, Lloyds of London, Fidelity Corporation Group and Prudential) to reduce the seller proportion as above. Both "deposits" are apparently guaranteed to be refunded by the independent agent and so are "safe" ..again...mmmm!!
A Google search of the telephone number seems to reveal it is apparently NOT from California but from India +1(646) 000-0000. But, I have received also an email which shows a New York company address:

Dear Mr. XXXX XXXXX,,
We have been trying to contact you on your telephone number however no one was picking up. Would you be so kind to provide us any alternative contact number to reach you on because we have an update regarding to your Traffic Master PLC / Danaher Corp. Shares. Thank you.
Sincerely Yours,

Administration Department
Sunburst Consulting Group
088 Park Avenue S, New York,NY 10003, USA
Phone: 1 914 336 4146
Fax: 1 914 331 7551

(I have redacted the email addresses included in the email)

I have no intention of handing over ANY money of course; however, is anyone else being subjected to this palaver?

Manxman_in_exile

You may get a better response by asking a mod to move your post to the Savings & Investments board (or perhaps the Praise, vents and warnings board?).

Angus_Og

Looks like Trafficmaster were taken over in 2010 at 47p per share. This is perhaps a tidying up exercise. So contact your broker in the UK and find out what is going on.

Cornucopia

Moved to the Savings & Investment subforum.

DrSyn

Sounds like the typical advanced fee scam.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4012259/trafficmaster-scam

As for the Sunburst Consulting Group website:-

https://www.scamdoc.com/view/35696

https://www.scamadviser.com/check-website/sunburstconsultinggroup.com

AnotherJoe

This is a classic scam. All the same things. Secrecy, pay money and get back more later. Been reported here with other companies usually ones that are defunct or been taken over. As said do contact your broker regards what you actually own if they were taken over or are these paper shares ?

Borrower71

Thanks to all who replied - just as I was expecting. Hopefully no one will fall for it.

Aretnap

The general rule is that if someone buys something from you, they give you money. If you sell something and you give money to the buyer then you are doing it wrong. Even if there are transaction costs to be met by the seller, a legitimate buyer will simply deduct these costs from the money that he sends you. Any transaction which involves you sending money to the person who is (purportedly) buying something from you can safely be assumed to be a scam.

leschilds

Have received numerous calls from Ms Carmella Chu of Glenhaven Consulting Group offering a deal with similar deals already mentioned there address as stated in there email to me is Glenhaven Consulting Group
515 W 52nd Street New York NY10019 USA
PHONE number 1 917 636 5861 Fax 1 917 997 9661
I can provide email &web site addresses if anyone requires these.
This appears to be the same scam

Ceme3000

I'm curious. How do these people get contact details for all the individual shareholders. Is it some sort of data breach?

Malthusian

Not exactly. The list of shareholders and their addresses is in the public domain, certainly for any UK company.

You can avoid getting spammed by holding shares via a platform or broker; in that case the broker's nominee company is recorded on the register rather than your personal details.

Shareholders' phone numbers are not on the public register, so if you get phone calls you are either on a suckers list or the scammers are cross-referencing the share register with the phone book or other databases.