Companies literally keep a big list of all the people who have shares and how many, in case they want to send out a dividend or something. If they think it is important to check it is easy to do once they have a name. Realistically the cost of checking is probably higher than just dealing with the issue at hand so they won't.

Though it is impolite to lie.

Stocks are generally held in the name of the broker (“street name”), not the individual. I’m not saying they can’t check but I wouldn’t bet on them calling up Schwab to verify you really own 10 shares of UAL.

>Companies literally keep a big list of all the people who have shares and how many, in case they want to send out a dividend or something. If they think it is important to check it is easy to do once they have a name.

I thought companies only knew the brokerage, and it was the brokerage who could tie it back to a specific person ?

I believe patio11 probably does this to satisfy his own ethics rather than as a strict necessity

Edit: and I see downstream he has an answer