Scottish Power Takeover scam

malcolmchisholm

My wife was approached as a Scottish Power shareholder by an American caller asking if she wanted to sell her shares to a secretive buyer who is trying to take over Iberdrola, who own Scottish power.  The story is that the buyer wishes to remain anonymous until s/he/they have acquired enough share backing to launch a takeover.  We just said "No" and put the phone down, but he was being very insistent and would not take to for an answer, so we had to be rude and disconnect the call.

Has anyone else had this recently?

Malcolm

mebu60

No, but two thoughts spring to mind:
- individual shareholders such as your wife are likely to own only a miniscule fraction of SP shares in circulation and individual shareholders collectively probably only a small fraction, any takeover bidder would be targeting institutional holders to build up a sufficient stake;
- I have no doubt an 'up-front fee' of some description would have been required. 

Will_Do

I've heard of the general scam but not sure if it was specific to Scottish Power or not. I

mebu60

I expect the scam is applied to whichever institution's list of shareholders' contact details the scammers have to hand. 

wmb194

malcolmchisholm said:

My wife was approached as a Scottish Power shareholder by an American caller asking if she wanted to sell her shares to a secretive buyer who is trying to take over Iberdrola, who own Scottish power.  The story is that the buyer wishes to remain anonymous until s/he/they have acquired enough share backing to launch a takeover.  We just said "No" and put the phone down, but he was being very insistent and would not take to for an answer, so we had to be rude and disconnect the call.

Has anyone else had this recently?

Malcolm

Scottish Power was bought by Iberdrola for cash and shares in 2007 so if your wife is anything she's a Iberdrola shareholder.

This is an old scam where they work through old share registers and IIRC usually try to advance fee fraud. With the popularity of nominee accounts these days vs directly owning certificates the number of marks must be growing rather thin, though.

The story they always use is rubbish anyway. It's illegal to build large secretive stakes and even if they did build a stake without notifying the market when required to it would always be easier to do so via the stock exchange rather than calling random small retail shareholders. They also wouldn't pay over the odds unless they had to, which is often the carrot they hold out to persuade you.

diystarter7

wmb194 said:

malcolmchisholm said:

My wife was approached as a Scottish Power shareholder by an American caller asking if she wanted to sell her shares to a secretive buyer who is trying to take over Iberdrola, who own Scottish power.  The story is that the buyer wishes to remain anonymous until s/he/they have acquired enough share backing to launch a takeover.  We just said "No" and put the phone down, but he was being very insistent and would not take to for an answer, so we had to be rude and disconnect the call.

Has anyone else had this recently?

Malcolm

Scottish Power was bought by Iberdrola for cash and shares in 2007 so if your wife is anything she's a Iberdrola shareholder.

This is an old scam where they work through old share registers and IIRC usually try to advance fee fraud. With the popularity of nominee accounts these days vs directly owning certificates the number of marks must be growing rather thin these days, though.

The story they always use is rubbish anyway. It's illegal to build large secretive stakes and even if they did build a stake without notifying the market when required to it would always be easier to do it via the stock exchange rather than calling random small retail shareholders. They also wouldn't pay over the odds unless they had to, which is often the carrot they hold out to persuade you.

Hi
I thought I was getting confused - thanks for the clarity re the buyout.

The scam is clear, "wanting to buy for a sectrivitve buyer." No genuine buyer ever says that to small shareholders
Thanks

dunstonh

I've seen the scam with a number of utility companies.  The fact it was Scottish Power's name being used this time is irrelevant.  You could replace that with any number of PLCs.

phillw

Tell them you work for the Inland Revenue Service and you only accept Google Play cards, and you take payment up front.

mattcymru1404

malcolmchisholm said:

My wife was approached as a Scottish Power shareholder by an American caller asking if she wanted to sell her shares to a secretive buyer who is trying to take over Iberdrola, who own Scottish power.  The story is that the buyer wishes to remain anonymous until s/he/they have acquired enough share backing to launch a takeover.  We just said "No" and put the phone down, but he was being very insistent and would not take to for an answer, so we had to be rude and disconnect the call.

Has anyone else had this recently?

Malcolm

This happened to me today, some guy rang my mum said from scot power and they are being taken over. I spoke on behalf of mum i stupidly gave them my email they said fill in this form in 24 hours and we will buy your shares!  Then they kept ringing which of course is fishy i told them where to go.... then turned phone off..

sharescamadviser1

May 2024 Scottish Power/Iberdrola shares

We were contacted by phone from the US with an offer to buy Iberdrola shares. It all seemed very genuine. There was a website meridiangrpllc.com, supposedly a law firm, and we were sent a non-disclosure agreement to sign because the take-over was to be kept quiet.  Calls had a number registered and it was a US number.  We became more suspicious when they were phoning every evening to chase us and I couldn't find any other info on this company or its employees, except the website.  I only really found out for sure by searching online looking on mse forum and seeing similar stories.  Reported to NCSC (gov cyber security) so please do the same for scams.

masonic

sharescamadviser1 said:

May 2024 Scottish Power/Iberdrola shares

We were contacted by phone from the US with an offer to buy Iberdrola shares. It all seemed very genuine. There was a website meridiangrpllc.com, supposedly a law firm, and we were sent a non-disclosure agreement to sign because the take-over was to be kept quiet.  Calls had a number registered and it was a US number.  We became more suspicious when they were phoning every evening to chase us and I couldn't find any other info on this company or its employees, except the website.  I only really found out for sure by searching online looking on mse forum and seeing similar stories.  Reported to NCSC (gov cyber security) so please do the same for scams.

Duplicate of https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/80812981#Comment_80812981