Cold-callers are contacting people who previously invested in a "boiler room" stockbroker.
Con artists are targetting former customers of a stockbroking firm which was shut last year by the Financial Services Authority (FSA), it has been suggested.
The industry watchdog shut down Pacific Continental Securities last year - and now says that a minimum of ten firms have been calling up investors and posing as "recovery" companies. Ex-customers have been told by the cold-callers that they will buy back their shares for a fee - or will put them in touch with other buyers.
However, the FSA said that these claims are untrue. "These firms offer to buy the shares at an attractive price but demand an advance fee," it said. "This is a scam - as soon as the fee is paid, the firm disappears with the money and without purchasing the shares."
Pacific was shut down last year by the FSA, after being accused of operating like a US-style "boiler room". An investigation in to the firm from the BBC had previously revealed that investors had been cold-called by brokers and subjected to "hard sell" techniques, forcing them to buy low-quality shares for inflated prices.
Its permission to trade was withdrawn by the watchdog in June 2007.
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