Fraudulent Calls

[scotia]

On most VCT sites you will find warnings concerning unsolicited telephone calls from scammers apparently offering to purchase your VCT shares. I remember receiving such a call many years ago concerning Keydata VCT - although by that time it had become Hargreave Hale. Today I received a letter from a "Claims Manager" who stated that they had obtained my name and address from a shareholder register of Keydata/Hargreave Hale - although I sold my holding in this VCT in April 2017.
The substance of the letter was that they believed it was likely, that having been on this share register, I had been approached by a firm (name supplied) which has been declared in default by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, and that they (the Claims Manager) specialise in claims for losses I may have incurred if I had used the services of the defaulting firm.
I most certainly did not use the services of such a cold caller, so I have experienced no such loss, and I have no intention of employing a Claims Manager.
However, this leaves a number of questions. How did this Claims Manager get my address from a share register? I no longer own these Keydata/Hargreave Hale shares. Does my name and address remain forever on the register?
And how do they know that the defaulting firm had called me - just a guess, or inside information? They also provide a list of other defaulting stockbrokers.

[Kidman]

I have been getting 'boiler-room' calls for over 30 years selling all sorts of so-called investments. Decades ago I used to get letters from (legitimate) small-cap brokers touting for business and I signed up with a few although very rarely traded. Whatever details these people have are saleable, possibly even by the administrator of a defaulting company. The share register usually only shows one's postal address hence my believing that these people usually buy lists rather than registers as they also want telephone numbers and/or email addresses.
In your case, the 'claims manager' may be correct in saying that they bought a shareholder register but I would assume that they bought an old one from a list provider rather than a current one from the Registrar. Same principle.
These lists all have different values depending on accuracy of data, likelihood of response, buying power of listed people and sundry other factors.

The last unsolicited letter I had from a claims chaser was a couple of weeks ago asking if I had transferred a pension into a SIPP.

[scotia]

I suspect we may be getting more such letters, as "Claims Managers" have to find some other market when PPI finally dries up.

[Alaric]

I suspect we may be getting more such letters, as "Claims Managers" have to find some other market when PPI finally dries up.

I wonder whether financial institutions have yet learned a 30 year lesson about mis-selling. That lesson being that if you offer incentives or coercion to your staff and sales force to promote products of dubious value, then once there's a regulator, even one that seems asleep most of the time or pursuing irrelevancies, it will come back and bite you.

There's a correlation is that products offering high incentives to those who promote or sell them are likely to be bad value for money for the obvious reason that the marketing and sales costs have to be recouped from somewhere and where better than the buyers.

[BusyBumbleBee]

You may not be aware but the EU GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) comes into force in May this year. It is draconian to say the least and will be enforced by the Information Commissioner who has been given real teeth to enforce it and can impose very large fines.

A guide can be found here for organisations https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/gu ... tion-gdpr/

Essentially if they can link a name to a piece of data (an email address, a telephone number, an address or a holding in a company etc) they have to register with the ICO. If they don't the fines will be even bigger.

and here for the public https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/ where you can find out your rights, how to complain etc. Two of the key rights are that a member of the public has to positively opt in (and if they haven't done so already they have to do it now) and the other is the right to be forgotten. This piece of legislation is greatly exercising almost all organisations across Europe and even after Brexit will apply in the UK because there is a Bill to enact this into UK law going through Parliament at the moment.

She (the information commissioner) is flexing her muscles with Facebook/Cambridge analytics at the moment

All these "Claims Managers" will have to comply or risk VERY LARGE fines if they don't and also large fines they don't comply once registered

Presumably Registrars will have to comply and local government will have to comply as regards the Electoral Roll.

[Alaric]

You may not be aware but the EU GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) comes into force in May this year.

The Government are keeping very quiet on this as far as it impacts on the general public and everyday life. What may be affected are the numerous small amateur clubs and organisations. These keep records. Are they caught by these new Regulations and if so why is the Government imposing this on us?

For that matter even a phone these days can have a comprehensive set of data on contacts. Is this exempt and if so why would the same data if held by a business fall foul?

[BusyBumbleBee]

Probably this is so off topic that we should not pursue it much here - but as far as I know it affects every organisation (including small clubs) that has records in stored in any form. Also, as far as I know, there are no de minimus exceptions. My guess is that the ICO will not pursue anyone unless there is a complaint but, as you know, some small organisations can gain a troublemaker as a member who could later cause mayhem.