Wish they'd change the "over one million" to "over 3 million" though.

If I'd known that by joining MSE you can get a free plug I'd have joined. 🤣

Just over three years ago I received several messages from a lady called Jane Anderson who claimed she was calling me from a Fund Management firm in New York. In the 1980s I sometimes bought a few shares in companies when the Government sold them off, but most have since been disposed of. However I kept one or two and when we eventually spoke, Jane said her firm was secretly involved in acquiring shares for one of these companies, to enable a take-over to be made. She needed to obtain another 8% to gain control and was interested in buying mine from me. The matter was subject to a confidentiality agreement, so she asked for my email address to send me a non-disclosure memorandum which she wanted me to complete and return. The form looked very real and had a website, but the price she was offering didn't seem right, so I ignored the confidentiality requirement and emailed my financial advisor, who suspected it was a scam. So I didn't return the form and when Jane called again, I told her that I only held 87 shares in the Company and it wasn't worth the hassle to sell them to her. She never called back again!

People were getting these calls back in 2023 and earlier. If you've ever had shares in certificated firm then your name and share holding will be on a register which anyone can access, and therefore calls have been made over the years, often talking about buying them at above market price but then a fee may well be mentioned.

If I get an unsolicited call, depending what mood I'm in I might go into "Where did you get my number?" mode. And I don't drop it until they realise that they're wasting valuable time that they could be using to scam somebody else.

Apparently a known scam…

If you have received an unsolicited or "scripted" phone call out of the blue regarding your Centrica shares, it is highly likely to be a scam. Neither Centrica nor its official share registrar, Equiniti, make unsolicited cold calls to shareholders offering to buy or sell shares, nor do they authorize third parties to do so. Fraudsters commonly use highly scripted, high-pressure tactics (known as boiler room fraud) to target individuals on public shareholder lists. They may falsely claim there is a "hostile takeover bid," a "script issue," or ask you to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).

The Optomist, sometimes you'll be screened out of a survey because you do not meet the demographic requirements. These could be anything such as age range, gender, location, employment status, where you shop etc. Or it could be that the bracket that you fit in to has had enough responses. The external surveys like to have an even amount of answers from each and each bracket type does not get completed at the same rate.

As the external surveys are advertised across many sites, there could be many people completing the surveys at once and it is possible that your bracket could reach its quota while you are in the middle or even at the end of the survey.

ade1948, the instant issues message is because sometimes you will be screened out due to the answers that you gave on previous surveys where the external, third party company’s system knows what demographic bracket you fit into from past answers and knows that you are not eligible for that survey. However, their system is not supposed to show you surveys which you are not eligible to complete but sadly their level of technology is not always at the level that we here at PMP or you our members would wish it to be. Sorry about that.

PureSpectrum kicks me out every time and never offers any award, did try others and they worked. Guess they just don't like me.

Because your demographic has filled. The screenout small amount is something that PMP do, not the survey company.

If she's entering the Bermuda triangle she may soon be seeing things none of us know about.

Looking out at nothing but water

Except for all the seaweed, 🦑krakens🐙 & floating📦♻ debris

The bank is 'Spring-savings.co.uk,' they're a subsidiary of Paragon Bank. Yes, I was a little surprised.

"Yes, you will continue to receive interest on any money that pushes your Spring Savings balance above the £5,000 maximum funding limit, provided that money is generated internally by the bank (such as interest payments or goodwill gestures)."

If you attempt to fund it yourself over £5k, it will recognise that and it will be returned to your bank.

Nick, if there’s a £5,000 limit, do they still pay interest on any excess? Usually I have found the max gets the interest and any excess either gets nothing or something trivial like 0.5%. What bank, by the way?

Many years ago I opened the third HBOS current account & fully funded it with £5K, & soon after I got the card by post, Someone in a hotel in Sao Paulo, Brazil bought 3 lots of drinks on it, but it had been in my drawer unused all week since it was recieved.

I shot down to the branch immediately with the said card & my long expired passport, no way would I have travelled back by then. They put me on the phone to someone at their fraud dept who asked lots of Q's & tried to blame me.

Took them some days to reverse all the fraudulent transactions each with echange fee & commission, I got no apology, & no compensation.

Turned out the banks computer was hacked (was in newspapers) as the new card details were going through it & cloned, but they never admitted it. I withdrew all my money & closed all 3 accounts.