dodgy shares

wench_2

I dont know if you will be able to help but i thought i would ask anyway.

My dad recently bought some shares, it seemed legit he got all the certificates and web sites and phone calls to check it all out.
Now one of them was in the news saying lots of people had lost money cause they thought they were cashing them in by sending off their certificates but haven't heard anything since(he was one of them)

He now has some more shares apparently from america..... They sent him a letter the other week supposedly from america but the post mark said south london and it was a second class stamp!!! (i would have thought it would be franked but i maybe wrong)

My question is how can i check this isn't another dodgy company and stop him losing even more money(we are talking thousands lost already!!)


cheers wench

NikkiP_2

sounds like a 'boiler room' fraud.
If you post the name of the company your dad thinks he has shares in I am sure there are some people on here who will do a bit of digging !
Tell your dad to stop replying to letters, once you do one of these , you get on to lists as a soft target.

Ian_W

Was your Dad "cold-called" to buy the first lot of shares? That is called to ask him to buy shares rather than him initiating it by asking an advisor or stockbroker about the shares? If so it is almost certainly a boiler room jobby and he has probably lost his money with the first lot and will lose more if he buys again.
BBC's Working lunch did a series of items about them very recently - there's a page HERE with links to them. They can be very sophisticated but are essentially a "con" which both the police and FSA are investigating and closing down when they can trace them. There are a lot though with new ones cropping up all the time.

Banderman

wench wrote: »

I dont know if you will be able to help but i thought i would ask anyway.

My dad recently bought some shares, it seemed legit he got all the certificates and web sites and phone calls to check it all out.
Now one of them was in the news saying lots of people had lost money cause they thought they were cashing them in by sending off their certificates but haven't heard anything since(he was one of them)

He now has some more shares apparently from america..... They sent him a letter the other week supposedly from america but the post mark said south london and it was a second class stamp!!! (i would have thought it would be franked but i maybe wrong)

My question is how can i check this isn't another dodgy company and stop him losing even more money(we are talking thousands lost already!!)


cheers wench

hopefullly he wasn't conned into buying Bradford and Bingley shares. That really would be a calamity.

Oblivion

Yep, it sounds very much like a boiler room operation. As someone who has owned shares, I'm obviously on numerous lists as a potential target to sell more to. I often get cold calls from these boiler room conmen, but because I have a digital answer machine always on, I don't need to pick up. Some of the more persistent ones will listen to my greetings message all the way through, including the bit that says "we do not accept calls from telesales companies", but still start their sales patter asking me to pick up.

The other day I got a call offering me a special deal on prime shares, and when I didn't pick up, the boiler room guy who was obviously frustrated at his failure and my obstinance, had an electronic recording ... I heard him flick a switch and then this electronic voice said "Eat my shorts", and he hung up.

I fell about laughing:rotfl: , but it shows you the type of people you're potentially dealing with here.

Dave.

wench_2

thank you to all for replying. It seems like he has been done!!!

The first shares were from Masahiro international called sustainable energy development inc and the others he has still got are Navada northern gold inc

does anyone know anything about them or even heard of them

I feel like i should be doing something to help him get his money back but i know as much about horse Sh!te as i do shares!!!

cheers wench

LucyTheDwarf

Googling both of those companies brings up reports of boiler room scams. I'm sorry to say it appears your father has been well and truly caught!

I'm not sure what you can do about it, but writing to the FSA would be a good idea, to help them pinpoint and close down these scams.

I do hope not too much money is involved... these people are horrid.

tradetime

The first shares were from Masahiro international

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Masahiro+international&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

turbobob

Hope it was not too much money involved, as its probably gone for good. You should point your father in the direction of this warning from the FSA - http://www.moneymadeclear.fsa.gov.uk/news/scams/share_scams.html

Note that Masahiro International appears on their list of unauthorised overseas firms operating (illegally) in the UK - http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pages/Doing/Regulated/Law/Alerts/overseas.shtml