Real fix for stock spams - pick up a pen

[Bookworm <qm...@bkwm.com>]

Pick up a pen, and write to your local congressman, or even to the SEC, 
and insist that they penalize those companies who are being pimped and 
pumped through spam emails. 

Today, I got one for Mobicom Communications.  If that company had their 
chance to go public yanked, you could be sure that they'd be much more 
careful the next time around who they dealt with for spreading the word.

I know that when the 'junk fax' companies started being SERIOUSLY 
penalized, and that you could take them to court yourself ($150 per 
fax).  We started seeing far fewer of them.   Don't bother targeting the 
spammers, that's not helping.  Target the folks paying the spammers 
(producers of the products).

Note - the bulk of those stock scams are US 'penny' stocks.  They are 
required to file with the SEC, even if they aren't on the main stock 
exchange.

BW

Re: Real fix for stock spams - pick up a pen

[Derek Harding <de...@innovyx.com>]

On Thu, 2006-11-16 at 10:57 -0800, Evan Platt wrote:
> 
> Imagine if ABC Corp is already public, and along comes XYZ, Inc, 
> about to go public. XYZ competes with ABC. ABC hires Spammer in 
> <Foreign Country> to spam for 'XYZ'. So now it looks like XYZ is 
> spamming. The FTC crawls all over XYZ, who of course plead innocent.

Or Joe spammer picks a penny stock at random. 
Buys a bunch, pumps it, dumps it. 

Derek

Re: Real fix for stock spams - pick up a pen

[Evan Platt <ev...@espphotography.com>]

At 10:51 AM 11/16/2006, you wrote:
>Pick up a pen, and write to your local congressman, or even to the 
>SEC, and insist that they penalize those companies who are being 
>pimped and pumped through spam emails.
>Today, I got one for Mobicom Communications.  If that company had 
>their chance to go public yanked, you could be sure that they'd be 
>much more careful the next time around who they dealt with for 
>spreading the word.
>
>I know that when the 'junk fax' companies started being SERIOUSLY 
>penalized, and that you could take them to court yourself ($150 per 
>fax).  We started seeing far fewer of them.   Don't bother targeting 
>the spammers, that's not helping.  Target the folks paying the 
>spammers (producers of the products).
>
>Note - the bulk of those stock scams are US 'penny' stocks.  They 
>are required to file with the SEC, even if they aren't on the main 
>stock exchange.

I would agree, except it would have to be proved it was the company 
doing or paying for the spamming.

Imagine if ABC Corp is already public, and along comes XYZ, Inc, 
about to go public. XYZ competes with ABC. ABC hires Spammer in 
<Foreign Country> to spam for 'XYZ'. So now it looks like XYZ is 
spamming. The FTC crawls all over XYZ, who of course plead innocent.

Joe Job. :) 

Re: Real fix for stock spams - pick up a pen

[Michael Clark <mc...@cdtmail.org>]

At 12:51 PM -0600 11/16/06, Bookworm wrote:
>Pick up a pen, and write to your local congressman, or even to the 
>SEC, and insist that they penalize those companies who are being 
>pimped and pumped through spam emails.
>Today, I got one for Mobicom Communications.  If that company had 
>their chance to go public yanked, you could be sure that they'd be 
>much more careful the next time around who they dealt with for 
>spreading the word.
>
>Note - the bulk of those stock scams are US 'penny' stocks.  They 
>are required to file with the SEC, even if they aren't on the main 
>stock exchange.

This is off-topic, but you've got to think that someone knows who is 
making the money off of the pump and dump. The Pink Sheet company, or 
whatever exchange runs the stock should know that someone sold x0,000 
shares of whatever.pk on a certain date. There has got to be a  paper 
trail somewhere. How we mere mortals get access to that list is the 
catch. Mike


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Re: Real fix for stock spams - pick up a pen

[Bookworm <qm...@bkwm.com>]

Coffey, Neal wrote:
> Bookworm wrote:
>   
>> Pick up a pen, and write to your local congressman, or even to the
>> SEC, and insist that they penalize those companies who are being
>> pimped and pumped through spam emails.
>>     
>
> Why should they?  The companies being advertised in the stock spams
> aren't responsible.  In fact, a good pump-and-dump stock scam can be
> very harmful to the target company.
>   
This depends on whether it's a pump and dump for the initial IPO (In 
which case, the company knows straight out who they're dealing with), or 
whether it's a pump and dump for an existing stock.  (In which case, the 
spammer stands out big-time, and can be backtracked by the SEC for 
sending out the spam - possibly for pump and dump.  I don't know if 
those are illegal or not, but using spam to do it definitely is)

Either way, it's a "Go for the money". 

BW

RE: Real fix for stock spams - pick up a pen

["Coffey, Neal" <nc...@langeveld.com>]

Bookworm wrote:
> Pick up a pen, and write to your local congressman, or even to the
> SEC, and insist that they penalize those companies who are being
> pimped and pumped through spam emails.

Why should they?  The companies being advertised in the stock spams
aren't responsible.  In fact, a good pump-and-dump stock scam can be
very harmful to the target company.

Here's what happens.  Our friend the Stock Spammer first finds some
penny stock, and buys thousands of shares.  Then, he sends out thousands
of emails pimping out the stock he just bought.  "OMG the XYZ Co. is
about to explode!"

Then thousands of idiots, in a display of stupendous gullibility, say
"hey, this poorly spelled email from someone I don't know sounds like it
contains trustworthy financial advice.  I think I will risk some money
on the trustworthiness of a total stranger!"  (It likely works because
the value of the stock is typically under $2/share, making it less of a
risk for the dimwits.)  As more and more nitwits buy into the scam,
Stock Spammer sees his investment double, or triple.

Eventually, the Stock Spammer dumps all his shares all at once.  The
flood of sales causes the victim company's stock price to plummet again,
leaving all of the dupes as losers, and XYZ company wondering what the
hell just happened.