Out of the Blue - Old Shares worth alot of money!!

JynxIRL

Now I didn't know where to post this so don't eat me if it's in the wrong forum.

OK got a phone call today from a English lady who said she was from a tracing company and she was looking for me.She said my name but she knew my middle name to so she caught my attention straight away, as I am in the phone book but my middle name is not listed.

She tells me I had shares in a company from years back that I can't even remember buying, not unless my parents bought them who are now long dead.Anyways she says they are worth a fortune and it's all mine (I wish):D.Can't remember what the name of the company was as all i kept thinking in my head was "scam"

I didn't want to give her my address because I was worried it was a scam, so I told here email some info on herself and the company she works for which she said she would do.It's only an hour ago but no email yet.

Anyone her of a scam like that?

She wasn't looking for credit card numbers or bank account numbers well not yet.

Axwell

Sounds too good to be true, usually means it is unfortunately. Considering you don't remember buying shares then its unlikely to be anything more than a scam, but interesting that she knew your middle name but you could have given this information signing up to some bogus website recently without thinking anything of it. Interesting to see if anything more happens and you get an email, not that I think that changes anything but more to see if they pursue it further.

JynxIRL

No i never use my middle name and I never sign up to any random site and if i do i always use a bogus name. I know my parents bought shares years ago. Oh well lets see what happens. Just curious anyone else get a phone call like that before?

Axwell

Its a pity you didnt take note of the company name, a quick search in google would have pretty much told you then if it was a scam or not.

chillywilly

im interested, keep us posted!

I'm going to arrogantly say "Total Scam"

Lplated

JynxIRL wrote: »

No i never use my middle name and I never sign up to any random site and if i do i always use a bogus name. I know my parents bought shares years ago. Oh well lets see what happens. Just curious anyone else get a phone call like that before?

I don't know whether your parents are still alive or not - but if not, how do you think this woman would know that shares they bought had passed to you?

This sounds highly suss, let her send you whatever she likes, if possible get the company name again and then contact the company's 'Company secretary' directly - they'll be able to confirm whether you hold shares and send you a cert.

Bandara

if its genuine they'll ring back

as an aside I had a holiday job once for HSBC that involved ringing literally thousands of their customers abut shares that they owned and had no knowledge off. Some of them totalled up to 100k

JynxIRL

No email yet, so I guess it could be a scam, unless she took my email address down wrong, if she dose email I will be looking for company reg number and registered addres, but she really really wanted to find Mr.xxxx xxxx xxxx (me), like it was life or death.

No point looking up flights to the Bahamas just yet

Anyways I will keep yous posted!!

BnA

Interesting..... sounds like a scam.... smells like a scam..... but you'd never know. Let us knwo what happens.

JynxIRL

BnA wrote: »

Interesting..... sounds like a scam.... smells like a scam..... but you'd never know. Let us knwo what happens.

It turns out to be a genuine company, with one hell of a payout!! But my name and address don't match up with the name and address they have,
even tho its the same town and county, my street name doesn't match and I can't think of any other ppl with the same name as me.

I looked every where for a shares certificate of the company i was supposed to of bought shares in, but no luck.

LOL Oh well. I'm happy tho it wasn't a scam, I no why they were so keen to get the money to me because they will earn there commission on it.

Good Karma

These companies are normally appointed if someone dies and no next of kin is available to claim assests. There job is to find the distant relatives and when they do they receive a comission. There are normally a couple of different companies looking for the same person so don't be surprised if you get another call...you obviously have the same name and county as the real benefactor.

And there normally of UK Origin

ve

I personally would be very paranoid about receiving such a call from a UK source. For starters, the urgency of their tone (create pressure), the attractiveness of their claim (pleasant surprise), all used to gain your co-operation. Other trust building techniques such as dropping names and numbers or other relevant details which might not be easy to get hold of, but not impossible are also used. Between that and the pressure put on, it can often leave people vulnerable and after they have had time to think about it, it's too late, they have disclosed something they shouldn't have.

A scam is not going to come on the phone with little ground work and just ask for your credit card details because pulling off the con is as important as gathering the ultimate information.

Identity thieves will take time and multiple avenues to profile you. E.g. you answered the phone and identified yourself, this confirms that [your name] is at [your phone number] and they know [the sound of your voice], as they probably recorded the call. That's a nice piece of info to add to the profile. Fair play to you, you didn't give them banking details, etc, but anything at all, such as an [email address], etc all helps them. They can derive other information from something like an email address, etc. Often they will just want you to confirm a piece of information that they have at hand. The confirmation tells them they are right, when before the question, they weren't sure.

Kevin Mitnick (infamous hacker) once wrote...."When innocious information, isn't!", reffering to the fact that some people are happy to give certain pieces of information away, but then only see alarm bells when other pieces are requested. It usually differs from person to person. Scams profile people. They may not pull the trigger today. The more they know, the easier it is to target you.

I think in the current climate, individuals will be more willing to co-operate when the chance of getting a few quid is involved. Also people are more desperate and will resort to scamming. I cannot confirm or deny the legitimacy of the OP's case, but I certainly would be skeptical.

The next time you get a call like this, and they ask you a question, don't answer it, instead ask them to keep talking and tell them that you are recording the call and to keep providing you with information regarding their reason for calling you. Any time they ask you a question, don't answer it and get the to keep talking and providing more information. When that exhausts just tell them, "Sorry you could have the wrong number, but I'll check to see if such a person is here, give me your contact name details, etc" and note them down so you can call them back if you want. Go online and use every name and number you have to profile them. Addresses, Names, Numbers, Company Names, Email addresses, everything!. Use the word scam in search terms and see if other people have made negative references towards them. Use their urgency and request for your co-operation against them. Surely if a bonafied source was involved, they would have no problem handing over all the details you want to know. Now all you have to do is verify, verify, verify. Make sure that your verification process is quality. E.g. don't just make sure that a phone number is associated with a business name. I could setup a local landline number in any country using VOIP and have my phone in Ireland ring here in a matter of minutes, these things do not automatically mean that a person is at a location determined by the landline access code, etc.

Best of luck.[/email]

REDZ

There is a show on BBC about this, maybe verify the company, get her to send you an email and check out the company a bit.