My brother died suddenly a few months ago. Which is really crap (I nearly lost it the other night when watching a Marvel movie and realised my last words to him were from that - he was a huge fan and had made a point of passing that on to me, but I honestly didn't realise that's where my words were from).
Anyhow, the phone rang this morning and a bloke who said he was calling from my brother's pension scheme asked for permission to write to me. He had my name, obviously my mobile number and it was definitely his employer's name. He didn't ask for any other details and his accent matched the location of the pension fund offices. There has been no mention of DB's death/identification in the press (thankfully, considering it was a serious accident) and I knew that he would have a pension with Death in Service Benefit, just because of where he worked.
I've given the guy permission to write and he says I'll receive something in the next couple of days.
Obviously, whatever it is, I'll double/triple/quadruple check whether it's legit before replying, but it's worrying me.
a) is it feasible that a large pension scheme has picked my details up and contacted me out of the blue like that?
b) is it likely to be a fucking cold hearted scam?
c) are they just doublechecking that the parent can be counted as a dependent?
d) could the silly sod have nominated me for something?
e) if so, will the other parties know of this/the amount?
For context, it's a family that was at best, coldly neglectful and at worst, outright abusive family - DB was the only one who seemed to like me and was the only person who never hurt me physically or said anything cruel. He died without a partner/spouse or having any children.
I'm a bit worried that the other relatives (who were planning to track down the Death in Service Benefit at his hospital bed - I did think at the time that it was probably a conversation they would have been better having in the Relatives' Room) have triggered a claim and they're going to go ballistic if they find out I'm potentially receiving something that they feel is rightfully the #1 abuser's.
Does anybody have any experience of this? I'm telling myself it's either dodgy as hell or it's just to make sure that he wasn't supporting somebody else on the side - but, as I was informed on the day of the funeral that they didn't want to ever see my ugly face again, I'd rather not have them contacting me to voice their displeasure or at least would like to be prepared change my mobile number.
Help! DB was my go-to for sensible answers to everything. And he's not here to ask.