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I recently received an email out of the blue from deVere Germany talking about my UK pension and Brexit. I've never had contact with the company before and never gave out my email to them. Apparently they seemed to have gleaned my info from LinkedIn (Which is funny, because the email they contacted isn't even available on LinkedIn). The email is as follows:

Good afternoon Draken,

My name is ***** and I work for DeVere Germany. We have recently expanded our presence here in Europe so we can give the proper advice to anyone who has worked in the UK and may have contributed to a private pension.

During my research on LinkedIn your profile grabbed my attention. I can see that you spent some time in the UK and so I wanted to reach out.

With Brexit looming we recommend anyone who has such assets discusses their options. Is this something that would be of interest?

I'm not interested in discussing anything with them, after all they contacted me and that's often a bad sign, plus my UK private pension doesn't even break 100GBP. However I found this odd post which points to them not doing everything correctly. Is that correct? Are they a scrupulous company? Should other people be wary if they get contacted?

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    If they're spamming you, then ipso facto they're not a scrupulous company ...
    – hmakholm left over Monica
    Commented Apr 27, 2018 at 9:43
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    contributed to a private pension They are after your money and nothing else. Run like your behind is on fire from them.
    – DumbCoder
    Commented Apr 27, 2018 at 10:30
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    It seems from your profile that you've previously worked in the UK but no longer do, is that correct? This stuff is relevant to the question because it at least lends some weight to them targeting you specifically. If I, as a native Brit, received this message, there isn't anything I could think could "grab their attention" so I would immediately consider it as spam
    – Michael
    Commented Apr 27, 2018 at 11:53
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    It doesn't immediately sound fraudulent to me, though I'm very hesitant to deal with anyone who cold approaches like this. I get so many LinkedIn messages from recruiters offering jobs with no relevance to me that I would not be surprised if their system is being abused by automated messenger bots all the time.
    – Michael
    Commented Apr 27, 2018 at 12:00
  • @Michael I am an expat from the UK and live in Europe now. I didn't receive the message via LinkedIn, but instead it was sent to my work email. I don't have my work email listed anywhere publicly, so it looks like they figured it out from what's available on my LinkedIn profile
    – Draken
    Commented Apr 27, 2018 at 12:07

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On further research, I found more information. They aren't a scam where they're trying to steal all of your money, instead they're using dodgy loopholes and functions to move your money and then taking a commission. They appear to often move your money through dangerous products that provide them a lot of money for selling but aren't guaranteed to pay out to the owner:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-24/firm-targeting-nest-eggs-of-u-k-expats-said-to-face-sec-probe

https://blog.enforcd.com/devere-group/

https://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/de-vere-financial-services-scam-london-england-greater-london-c453023.html

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/investing/11726158/Exposed-the-rip-off-investment-advisers-who-cost-British-expats-billions.html

Looks like they are using hard sales tactics trying to push their products on to people and should generally be avoided.

However, on another note the DeVere group are denying these claims. So I would recommend a very wary approach if you do want to do business with them.

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