FSA warns 38,000 people of share fraud scam

19 May 2010 0:00 am | Updated: 19 May 2010 9:31 am | By Hannah Stodell

The list contains the names and addresses of 38,242 people who the FSA believes may be contacted out of the blue and offered worthless shares.

Key targets are based in London and the South East, but there are also significant numbers present in Yorkshire and Lancashire.

The master list is the biggest the FSA has ever recovered and is believed to still be in active use by boiler rooms operating in the UK and abroad.

Share fraudsters, commonly know as boiler rooms, typically contact people by telephone and use high pressure sales tactics to con investors into buying non-tradable, overpriced or even non-existent shares.They are unauthorised often overseas-based companies with fake UK addresses and phone lines routed abroad. 

The regulator recovered the list through its intelligence network with counterparts in the United States, Immigration & Customs Enforcement and the Internal Revenue Service.

FSA head of unauthorised business Jonathan Phelan says: “This is the biggest list we have ever recovered and by acting quickly and contacting every single person on it we’re hoping we can stop people losing money.

“Boiler rooms fraudsters often sound professional so it’s easy to be drawn in by their overblown claims and give them money to invest. The reality is however that the shares are worthless or don’t exist and the money is lost forever.” 

People who think they may have been targeted by a boiler room should call the FSA’s customer contact centre on 0845 606 1234.


 

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