A weird phone call about shares

Nardy

About an hour ago, I got a phone call asking to speak to me about my Centrica shares. I didn't quite catch the full name of the caller. In a loud and clear voice I said "who are you?", then the line went dead.

The thing is they knew my name and I do own Centrica shares, held in my Interactive Investor account.

Does anyone know what is going on here?

wmb194

Nardy said:

About an hour ago, I got a phone call asking to speak to me about my Centrica shares. I didn't quite catch the full name of the caller. In a loud and clear voice I said "who are you?", then the line went dead.

The thing is they knew my name and I do own Centrica shares, held in my Interactive Investor account.

Does anyone know what is going on here?

Usually they're scam calls offering to buy your shares at above market value due to a super secret stake building exercise by someone they're working for and then IIRC there's an advance fee fraud.  

They would pick up your name from the or an old share register. Did you originally own them in certificated form?

Nardy

Thanks.

They stem from end of year bonuses and share save schemes from my time in the gas industry over 30 years ago and I did have some certificates.

I had a similar call about a year or so ago about some Barclays.shares. I received those after Barclays took over the Woolwhich BS in the 90s.

naedanger

I had a very similar phone call a few years ago. In my case I am fairly sure it was a boiler room scam. 

If you hold (or held) shares in certificated form then you name and holding is (or was) on a public register that can be accessed by anyone. 

In my case the caller pretended to be from an agency, supposedly acting on behalf of the company whose shares I held, to establish how happy shareholders were with the company's performance. However it became clear that the caller was hoping I wasn't happy and was trying to angle the conversation round to discuss other investments.

Jefflspeed

I have been getting these for a few weeks, initially I had to sign and return an nda. Apparently I had some 487 centrica shares which I sold a few years ago. however I had a script issue of shares at 1:9 so I now have 35000+.however in order to sell them I have to pay a 10% insurance!!! About £3500. Definitely a scam. I had the same thing 2 years ago also re centrica but from a different company!

jaypers

It’s a scam. All of these calls are scams. If you want to check anything about your Centrica shares because the call triggers something because it’s relevant, don’t talk to the scammer calling you…..hang up, turn your mobile phone off/on again and call a number you know is legitimate.

SnowMan

Generally it is not a good idea for older people to hold shares in certificated form as many do as a result of the historic purchase of privatisation shares. It can cause problems when your estate is being dealt with. It requires the executor to identify all shareholdings and the correct share certificates for each individual holding. Because of share reorganisations and scrip issues of shares it can be difficult for executors to be sure they've got all the right certificates. And even if everything is meticulously in place record wise it can be harder and more expensive to sell certificated share holdings.

So worth switching to nominee ownership ideally via a platform, and while there is still a bit of effort when switching to nominee form, that's easier while you are alive, perhaps with the help of a relative than leaving this to the executors.

I'd always assumed that switching to nominee form was a protection against boiler room scams from scammers accessing the share register, but from the post above it is probably only mitigation as previous certificated ownership can lead to these calls.

libra10

A relative was almost scammed out of approximately £4000 in a Centrica shares scam.

He signed a form and thought he couldn't get out of the scam.

Luckily his bank refused to send the money.

Be careful.

poseidon1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82101345#Comment_82101345

100 % agree that paper certificates are an utter nuisance and the current program to dematerialise such certificates in favour of digital registers can't happen soon enough. As indicated below the process is proceeding very slowly -

https://www.hsfkramer.com/notes/corporate/2026-posts/company-law-implementation-plan-for-digitisation-of-uk-share-ownership-published

In the meantime ridiculous situations abound as evidenced by a relative trying to assist an elderly friend of his with a very substantial single company holding amassed over 40 years via SAYE, and automated dividend reinvestment.

The elderly friend has a massive number of certificates the vast majority of which are worthless following a major corporate restructuring in 2021. Trying to convince him to throw away the worthless paper and migrate the remains to an online broker has been a painful process.

brewerdave

Re an earlier post about multiple "worthless bits of paper" I have to agree. Recently whilst sorting out LPAs for my wife and myself, I decided to rationalise our financial "filing system" at the same time.

I was staggered by the number of share certificates that I found ,mostly resulting from my former employer's SAYE or profit sharing schemes, as well as "tell Sid" type purchases.

Shredded ~ 100 certificates! Still have ~ 8 or 10 between us. Must look at the mechanism for moving these into nominee accounts!

wmb194

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82102757#Comment_82102757

"Must look at the mechanism for moving these into nominee accounts!"

It's easy: open a GIA with Scottish Widows Share Dealing (SWSD) nee iWeb*, fill in the transfer form on its site and post it and your certificates to SWSD. In a few days your lodged shares will appear in your account.

*No account fee, £5 per trade, ultimately owned by Lloyds Banking Group.