[Solved - not a scam] Unsolicited Morgan Stanley Treasury Liquidity Fund prospectus in the post

ClubMan

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I received the above in the post this morning. Obviously I'm not going to act on it but I wonder if it's a scam? I don't have any dealings with Morgan Stanley other than the fact that they acquired E*Trade recently. But I certainly never requested any prospectus or info about any such fund from them. It's a maybe 100 page document. Oddly it contains several errors ("Error! Unknown document property name" in the footer on some pages, "Error! Bookmark not defined" in some headings etc.). Just wondering if anybody else has come across or received anything similar? Weird...
 

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Hi Clubman

It's not easy to read so I am not sure what it is.

Are they asking you to invest?

Morgan Stanley is one of the banks which is often impersonated by spammers

Brendan
 
I'd imagine when you have funds sitting in your e*trade account, this is the fund they are invested in. It should all be in your terms & conditions - there'll be something about Money Market sweep rates.
Etrade is owned by Morgan Stanley, which is why they use those funds.
 
Hi Clubman

It's not easy to read so I am not sure what it is.

Are they asking you to invest?
There's no covering letter soliciting an investment. Just this prospectus document which I haven't read - I just flicked through it. Other than the document errors or looks like a regular impenetrable financial prospectus. Maybe it's some automatically circulated document related to my E*Trade account but I don't know why it would be. As I said, I'm obviously not going to act on it and am not that concerned - just confused.
 
I'd imagine when you have funds sitting in your e*trade account, this is the fund they are invested in. It should all be in your terms & conditions - there'll be something about Money Market sweep rates.
Etrade is owned by Morgan Stanley, which is why they use those funds.
Thanks @RedOnion - l think I have $12 in my E*Trade account. :) I'll check that account to see if there's any mention of this fund there..
 
Bingo @RedOnion! I just noticed on the cover/address page the last 4 digits of my E*Trade account so I guess that you're correct. Mystery solved. Weird that they sent it with absolutely no cover letter/explanation and a document with formatting errors...
 
That document is automatically generated from a template. A bit like a mail merge. Some of the items that were there when the template was first created are now missing. That's why the errors are there. They obviosly haven't noticed.
 
I also got one of these letters this evening and glad to see I’m not alone. I also have an E*trade account $0.01 in there so must be that. Looking forward to the big capital gains!
 
The document is full of typos and formatting issues

The Morgan Stanley logo on the front has a poorly detoured background still visible
20231006_130118.jpg

It is written in deliberately obtuse legalese/financialese that sums up to: this is a super secret exclusive opportunity to invest in a tax haven, you are not allowed to talk about it or show anyone.

The final few pages are template letters and addresses in the US where you should send your account info.

It is definitely a scam. The final 4 digits of our E*Trade accounts are not secure, they are present in clear on every communication and must have leaked, along with our addresses.
 
This is a scam which is piggybacking on a genuine unsolicited email from Morgan Stanley to clients of E*Trade

 
This is a scam which is piggybacking on a genuine unsolicited email from Morgan Stanley to clients of E*Trade

Are you sure?
It's looks exactly the same as the booklet that I received in relation to my E*Trade account.
It's just so badly composed and lacking any cover letter that it looks suspicious.
@Misccold do you have an E*Trade account?
If so, then this is the most likely explanation:
 
And the scammers are now piggybacking on this to launch their own scam

That doesn't look like a scam to me.
It looks like exactly the same booklet that I received in relation to my E*Trade account.
 
Yes.

It's almost certainly something that was automatically sent to customers as a result of Morgan Stanley taking over E*Trade in 2020 and them only completing the integration this year. But they made such a mess of it that they managed to make it look like some sort of scam to many (including me initially).
As @RedOnion said in the other thread it's most likely related to the cash/deposit/"sweep" account associated with most or all E*Trade trading accounts where cash is held.
 
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Very interesting

So Morgan Stanley produces a genuine document to look like a scam?

No wonder people are confused.

Brendan
 
@ClubMan you have no reason to believe it is genuine, your only argument has been that it was sent to anyone who has an Etrade account.

There are plenty of scam indicators, some of which I listed earlier
 
There are plenty of scam indicators, some of which I listed earlier
What scam?
Did they ask you for money?

this is a super secret exclusive opportunity to invest in a tax haven, you are not allowed to talk about it or show anyone.
The document cannot be sent to US citizens. Only non US citizens can use the Cayman Islands fund. A lot of those warnings are standard where a document cannot be shared with specific countries.
 
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