As many as 1.3 million GM certificates thought to have been destroyed were stolen from a warehouse. Out of this, 20 attempts were made to present them for sale and as collateral for loans at financial institutions. However, none of the attempts was successful and no losses occurred. All the securities involved were General Motors Corporation common stock certificates issued prior to January 1, 1984. The cancellation of the certificate is generally evidenced solely by small perforation holes in the lower right corner of the certificates (although some of the stolen certificates may not even bear the perforation marks.)

More recently, U.S. SEC has learnt that other attempts have been made at some European institutions to pass such certificates as legitimate. U.S. SEC has reason to believe that a large amount of investors in several jurisdictions of IOSCO members may be at risk of being defrauded and urge them to exercise extra care in accepting securities from non-customers and in the inspection of each certificate before treating it as valid.

U.S. criminal authorities have begun an investigation into the matter.