Is this a scam?

eastcorkram

Marcon said:

eastcorkram said:

My partner had a similar letter from the same company a couple of months ago, and also a similar letter from Legal and general about six or seven months ago.

She refused to respond to them in any way , even though they did have a correct previous address from the 1980s, as she's absolutely adamant she has never dealt with either business. 

Personally I would have at least investigated it a bit. But she chose to ignore them .

So a sensible action (wariness) followed by a rather less sensible one (ignoring the letter). How does she expect to get her benefits at retirement?

MsMoon said:

I have received a letter out of the blue from SANLAM INSURANCE - saying they have a policy in my name and giving an old address from years ago, the address is correct except for one typo. It says that I can check this on the find a pension service. I do not remember having a policy out with that company.

The letter does seems legitimate in that it looks professional & includes an SAE etc, and apart from that one typo and it does not ask for bank details or anything, it asks me to send back a signed form either by post (includes a SAE) or email. Any advice would be welcome.

If there are concerns about a potential scam simply because you don't recognise the name of the firm contacting you, try a search via https://www.gretel.co.uk/ (free) and that should put your mind at rest if the answer comes back confirming Sanlam (a legitimate business, as confirmed earlier in this thread) is where your benefits are now.

No idea. Not my problem! Not much I can do about it now anyway, as the letters are long gone. She was never going to listen to me. 

One of the letters had a form to fill in, asking for pretty much everything. DOB. NI number etc. Had a return pre paid envelope. I checked the address on it, and it appeared to be genuine. Showed her that. Made no difference. She thought it was just a scam for information. 

She will be fine. Been a teacher for a long time. If it was genuine, it can only have been for something small. Before becoming a teacher , she would only have had a few short term jobs.

I tried!

zagubov

Another vote for treating it as genuine. I've had a policy for forty-odd years that has been passed from company to company and was so widely-travelled it has managed to spend time in places like Switzerland and Australia which I've not had the privilege of visiting yet.

Marcon

eastcorkram said:

Marcon said:

eastcorkram said:

My partner had a similar letter from the same company a couple of months ago, and also a similar letter from Legal and general about six or seven months ago.

She refused to respond to them in any way , even though they did have a correct previous address from the 1980s, as she's absolutely adamant she has never dealt with either business. 

Personally I would have at least investigated it a bit. But she chose to ignore them .

So a sensible action (wariness) followed by a rather less sensible one (ignoring the letter). How does she expect to get her benefits at retirement?

MsMoon said:

I have received a letter out of the blue from SANLAM INSURANCE - saying they have a policy in my name and giving an old address from years ago, the address is correct except for one typo. It says that I can check this on the find a pension service. I do not remember having a policy out with that company.

The letter does seems legitimate in that it looks professional & includes an SAE etc, and apart from that one typo and it does not ask for bank details or anything, it asks me to send back a signed form either by post (includes a SAE) or email. Any advice would be welcome.

If there are concerns about a potential scam simply because you don't recognise the name of the firm contacting you, try a search via https://www.gretel.co.uk/ (free) and that should put your mind at rest if the answer comes back confirming Sanlam (a legitimate business, as confirmed earlier in this thread) is where your benefits are now.

No idea. Not my problem! Not much I can do about it now anyway, as the letters are long gone. She was never going to listen to me. 

One of the letters had a form to fill in, asking for pretty much everything. DOB. NI number etc. Had a return pre paid envelope. I checked the address on it, and it appeared to be genuine. Showed her that. Made no difference. She thought it was just a scam for information. 

She will be fine. Been a teacher for a long time. If it was genuine, it can only have been for something small. Before becoming a teacher , she would only have had a few short term jobs.

I tried!

Let's hope she isn't teaching economics or IT...! Is it worth suggesting to her that you both give Gretel a go (strength in numbers) to see if you have any 'lost' benefits lurking anywhere?

MsMoon

Just an update - I called them and as far as I can tell it is perfectly genuine and I have a small sum of money in the policy which they will write to me about. So thanks for all the replies and I await to see what's in the letter!

PR10

@ MsMoon
Interested in your update as I got a letter that sounds exactly the same from Sanlam on Friday and I've been trying to find out if it is legit (which led me to your post). They mentioned that I might not have heard of them as my policy may have been with another company 'such as Merchant Investors' and gave part of an address from the late 90s. As it turns out, I did have a Merchant Investors pension in the 90s. However, I've kept track of that pension and I know which company took it over. I phoned that company today to ask if my pension had been transferred to a new company - it hasn't. As that is the only personal pension I've ever taken out, I'm not sure what policy Sanlam are trying to reconnect me with. Off to see if I have any old documents for a life insurance policy now. I'm still a bit wary, but your post has been useful, so thank you for putting it on here.

daz378

Why not try to find it on the government's  lost pensions site....if it finds it ...its one way to verify...a bit convoluted..but an option

MsMoon

daz378 said:

Why not try to find it on the government's  lost pensions site....if it finds it ...its one way to verify...a bit convoluted..but an option

I did not see the option for that when I tried the site as I had no recollection or paperwork about it. The woman on the phone line sounded convincing & the postal address matched for the company. I await the letter from them, but will still be wary of giving them any more personal info than they have already quoted in the letter.

ouraggie

MIL recently received a letter, via the DWP, from Phoenix Life, asking her to get in touch re an old pension. She ignored it. I found the letter, we rang them and a week or so later later she was in receipt of a monthly pension for life and also a lump sum of several thousand pounds (all the hitherto unpaid monthly amounts x 13 years).