Why a Gosport pensioner smelled a rat when he was offered £50,000 for his BT shares

The call came from Glenhaven Consulting, a finance company who insisted they’d a buyer lined for the shares he bought while working for the company as an engineer in their monthly sharesaver plan.

Along with over 20,000 other employees the Gosport OAP joined the plan in 2009, paying in £124 a month. On maturity five years later, the closing price of the shares had rocketed to 389 pence per share.

But to his surprise just before Christmas, David, 75, started receiving calls from Glenhaven, who are based in New York, making it clear they’d considerable knowledge about his BT shareholding.

They insisted if he unloaded them they’d a buyer waiting to snap them up at the full closing price.

However David knew full well he’d flogged off all his shares in the plan immediately after maturity to buy a new car and fund a major home extension, complete with a granny annex.

‘You could have knocked me back with a feather,’ he said, ‘because they were very convincing.

‘As I’d had shares in BT part of what they were claiming was true, yet their legal people were adamant I was still a shareholder and the money was mine for the asking.

‘They were insistent they had a number of hedge fund clients anxious to snap up the shares to increase their holdings in BT.

‘I went on to explain I’d already sold the shares but they said their paperwork indicated they were still registered.

‘Despite the fact I made it clear that I’d long since discarded my copy of the share certificates, they kept pushing the point they weren’t needed.

‘They claimed they were still registered and still worth nearly £4 a share, not the current £1.40-odd I’d checked out on the internet.

‘The next thing I received from Glenhaven was an email containing a sale and purchase agreement urging me to get back to them promptly.

‘They said I risked losing the opportunity as only the first 20 per cent of shareholders who signed up would be accepted.

‘Then just hours later they phoned me to say I was in danger of losing out unless I transferred £4,230 to them in registration and processing fees, 50 per cent of which would be refunded on receipt along with the £49,436 due to me.

‘What with the mounting pressure to turn the obviously bogus offer into a done deal, I quickly smelt a rat and told them where to get off.

‘Because of the number of retired people who were likely to have invested in similar employee share incentive schemes by the public utilities when they were nationalised, I decided to get in touch with Streetwise to warn others this scam was doing the rounds.’

Fraud is one of Britain’s most under-reported crimes. It accounts for a third of all offences, leaving consumers out of pocket by over £10 billion annually, but only 17 per cent of offences are ever reported to the police.

Subsequent to David making contact, we found a number of warnings online from other people who’d also been targeted in a similar way to him.

As it was possible readers were likely to be at risk, we quickly resorted to our routine background business checks on the Glenhaven Consulting Group - not to be confused with a reputable business consultancy with the same name in Appley Bridge, Lancashire.

Our first port of call was the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the body responsible for regulating the financial services industry in the UK.

We discovered the disturbing news that the Glenhaven Consulting Group weren’t regulated, and the FCA website carried a warning to investors to be wary of the firm which wasn’t authorised to do business in the UK.

A spokesperson said: ‘Almost all firms and individuals offering, promoting or selling financial services or products in the UK have to be authorised by us.

‘However, some firms act without our authorisation and some knowingly run investment scams. Glenhaven Consulting is not authorised by us and is targeting people in the UK.

‘Based upon information we hold, we believe it is carrying on regulated activities which require authorisation.’

When we tried to contact the firm’s New York office by phone and email, all our efforts drew a blank. Our phone messages remained unanswered and email requests for a comment about their contact with David were ignored.

Next stop was an American equivalent of Checkatrade - the Better Business Bureau. They told us the business address appeared to be located in a block of residential apartments in the city and it had the hallmarks of a scam.

Action Fraud, the UK’s fraud reporting hub told us that share and bond scams were rife and the age groups commonly targeted were investors in their 60’s and OAP’s.

The scams usually come out of the blue with fraudsters cold-calling victims after obtaining their phone numbers from publicly available shareholder lists, or information sold to them by criminals on the dark web.

Their high pressure sales tactics can also come by email, text message, or post.

Share scams are recognisable by a distinct MO - unaccountable funds, requests for advance fees, high pressure calls, and trading from a number of dubious fly-by-night business locations.

David said: ‘I can’t thank you enough for helping to expose these rogues and trying to track them down,

‘Thousands of people like me who’ve worked and bought shares in privatised companies could be taken for a ride.

‘The FCA told me when I reported the incident to them that even experienced investors are caught out by these scams.

‘If I’ve been instrumental in helping to bring them to the attention of your readers then I’m well satisfied.’