Is there one born every minute?

did he give you a name for a firm? They're unlikely to be FCA registered these days - but only a few years ago some dodgy FCA(FSA) registered firms based in London were pulling this scam. Probably a bunch of British boiler room types working from Spain or Thailand.

You'll also get the same type of people trying to sell you wine investments, plots of land that are a 'sure thing' to get planning permission, carbon credits, coloured diamonds... there are plenty of suckers out there for them.


If it is just some unregulated overseas firm then you might as well string them along... pretend you are actually buying and want to send them a cheque - Mr Wolf of Wall Street wannabe will be ecstatic, tell him you'll invest for 30 grand even as you've got some money from your grans will or something... then listen to him get even more frustrated on further calls when he realises the cheque isn't coming :D You could build it up a bit, sound interested and string out another couple of calls before 'buying', make it seem like you are quite wealthy and he has potentially landed a whale, you 'only' want to risk 30 grand in this first deal to test them out... turn it even more emotional for the salesman so he is really happy before reality hits home.

If it is FCA regulated though just report them right away please.
 
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I've just checked my email to find out the name of the company. No email was sent. But the person stated he will speak to me after the weekend. He sounded American/Canadian.
I can't string him along. I'll simply say 'not interested' and hang up.
 
Dimple said:
She doesn't cold call really, these are people who are in major financial difficulties and the bank has a duty to try and help.

The Mortgage Account Manager will undertake duties in accordance with legal and regulatory rules and guidance, with agreed procedures and with due care for the customer, supporting customers who are experiencing financial difficulty in maintaining their mortgage payments, ensuring the most suitable outcome is reached for both the company and the customer.
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It's all twaddle. The banks are just so regulated these days and they are working on tippy tip toes because they have lost the public trust. So many of the big players have completely overhauled their strategy. My mate is a branch manager for one such bank and he was explaining all to me, how they had to re-term everything. No longer do they push sales targets and bonuses for sales made on the employee. Instead they have stats such as "how many people you helped". He said that obviously it's still sales and they all know that, because business is after all business, but it's all about the public perception at the moment.

Your daughter "helps" people to ensure they continue to remain with her bank and continues to pay her bank their money. The bank can dress it up with whatever terminology it wants but it's inevitably the same goal in business.
 
lunar said:
Hence, when I am in my late sixties I think I may be wise to give power of attorney to my children in order to protect me.
Am I considering the right choice?
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tbh I fully expect my children to be retarded and I wouldn't trust them with a tent peg.
 
RoboCod said:
Your daughter "helps" people to ensure they continue to remain with her bank and continues to pay her bank their money. The bank can dress it up with whatever terminology it wants but it's inevitably the same goal in business.
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It's a lot easier to take the house off them instead of going through all the twaddle.
I can't imagine getting the phone calls that she makes because I never understood what my mortgage was.
"Sir did you know that in 3 years time when your mortgage ends you will still owe the bank £120,000?".
 
RoboCod said:
It's all twaddle. The banks are just so regulated these days and they are working on tippy tip toes because they have lost the public trust. So many of the big players have completely overhauled their strategy. My mate is a branch manager for one such bank and he was explaining all to me, how they had to re-term everything. No longer do they push sales targets and bonuses for sales made on the employee. Instead they have stats such as "how many people you helped". He said that obviously it's still sales and they all know that, because business is after all business, but it's all about the public perception at the moment.

Your daughter "helps" people to ensure they continue to remain with her bank and continues to pay her bank their money. The bank can dress it up with whatever terminology it wants but it's inevitably the same goal in business.
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To be fair I imagine it's always in the best interest of the bank to keep a person from declaring bankruptcy and potential losing a lot of money so they'll often be willing to negotiate terms etc
 
Dimple said:
It's a lot easier to take the house off them instead of going through all the twaddle.
I can't imagine getting the phone calls that she makes because I never understood what my mortgage was.
"Sir did you know that in 3 years time when your mortgage ends you will still owe the bank £120,000?".
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It may be easier in the short term to take the house off the person but that means the bank then has to try and sell it to recoup their money - they may not get back sufficient to cover the outstanding amount nor is it something they presumably want to be doing, if it was they'd be in the property business rather than the lending business. Then there's the point that if the mortgage owner can keep making payments (even if not at the initially agreed rate) it remains an income stream for the bank.

Your daughter may be doing her job and getting enormous satisfaction from helping people but banks are acting from two basic motivations 1) it makes commercial sense to keep mortgages going most of the time (occasionally it won't but that's rarer) and 2) the legislative and regulatory frameworks have been tightened to encourage them not to repossess unless as a last resort.
 
semi-pro waster said:
Your daughter may be doing her job and getting enormous satisfaction from helping people but banks are acting from two basic motivations 1) it makes commercial sense to keep mortgages going most of the time (occasionally it won't but that's rarer) and 2) the legislative and regulatory frameworks have been tightened to encourage them not to repossess unless as a last resort.
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I can't disagree with that sensible reply
 
lunar said:
In the mean time I had an eye on my watch. It took him 8 minutes before he said "do you have £4000 to invest". He didn't even request any money now, but to think about our conversation and that he'd send me an email about the company and gains that would be made.
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I certainly wouldn't, even out of idle curiosity, engage in conversation, or listen to some cold caller for 8 minutes.

From what you say, I gather he will be phoning you back, emailing you perhaps?

I always answer my home phone with a gruff "Hello", if it's a cold caller, I say, in my best Chinese accent "This is Chinese Chippy, what you want?".

They never stay on the line.

My good sister in the West Country, no computer, no mobile phone, too nice for her own good, listened to some cold caller in her usual polite manner only to be phoned repeatedly by the first person and then by dozens of other callers, everyone wanting her to invest money in one venture or another. She was getting dozens of calls a day/night. She reported it to the police, they suggested that she had probably been placed on a 'suckers' list' and it was NOT a good idea to listen to any patter from someone she doesn't physically know. Good advise, but I prefer my Chinese accent reply.
 
I should have been wiser and simply say I was not interested.
I am expecting a call Tuesday or Wednesday; I will just say I am not interested and put the phone down.
 
Belly said:
My good sister in the West Country, no computer, no mobile phone, too nice for her own good, listened to some cold caller in her usual polite manner only to be phoned repeatedly by the first person and then by dozens of other callers, everyone wanting her to invest money in one venture or another. She was getting dozens of calls a day/night. She reported it to the police, they suggested that she had probably been placed on a 'suckers' list' and it was NOT a good idea to listen to any patter from someone she doesn't physically know. Good advise, but I prefer my Chinese accent reply.
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unlikely - more likely is that those companies got her information from the same place the first one did - often something as simple as companies house etc.. investing in some small company on the AIM market for example can cause you to get phone calls

a 'suckers list' as far as investing is concerned is mostly due to individual brokers moving firms and bringing with them lists of former client or whole teams moving into a different area -like a bunch of boiler room types deciding to set up a new company/new fake names to sell perhaps wine investments instead and calling the same bunch of people who fell for the first scam- if she didn't even buy anything from the first person and they're still at that time trying to close her then that doesn't really fit... especially if she was just fluffing them then she is just 'wood'
 
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No sympathy for greedy old folk who fall for these scams. I mean you hear about frail old pensioners being conned out of £60K cash because they thought they had won £1K. :o
 
LeeUK said:
No sympathy for greedy old folk who fall for these scams. I mean you hear about frail old pensioners being conned out of £60K cash because they thought they had won £1K. :o
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Unfortunate statement.
I feel sorry for these old people. You hear about it on TV how they get pressured into parting with their savings.

However, the people I find foolhardy are the single/divorced/separated women who find 'love' on the Internet, where the lover (chat but no touch) states he is in a bit of a pickle and needs to borrow 10 grand, but 15 grand would be preferable...Oh did I say how much I love you.
 
LeeUK said:
No sympathy for greedy old folk who fall for these scams. I mean you hear about frail old pensioners being conned out of £60K cash because they thought they had won £1K. :o
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I'm not sure you really understand what is being discussed, this has nothing to do with purportedly 'winning' anything?
 
dowie said:
I'm not sure you really understand what is being discussed, this has nothing to do with purportedly 'winning' anything?
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They get bombarded with junk mail and calls saying they have won this and won that but need to send cash to claim. After a while they have basically given away all their life savings away when they didn't need the "prize" in the first place.
 
lunar said:
However, the people I find foolhardy are the single/divorced/separated women who find 'love' on the Internet, where the lover (chat but no touch) states he is in a bit of a pickle and needs to borrow 10 grand, but 15 grand would be preferable...Oh did I say how much I love you.
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This happened to a work colleague of mine and I eventually had to step in when I'd heard too much.
I'd heard the women talking about a man she had met on the internet and being hard of hearing I wasn't able to eavesdrop properly but a couple of weeks later I heard something like "She's going to send him the £1000 he asked for" and that's when I stepped in.
This had all started with an email.
 
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