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Dear Pastor I have sinned! I bought into the hype of two penny stocks.What will be my penance?
Pump and Dump' conmen targeted
By Maggie Shiels
Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley
Shanghai stock exchange, AP
Spam is used to boost share prices so conmen can cash in
Scammers using the net to hype stocks are being targeted with software that can spot fraudulent trading patterns.
Many hi-tech conmen use junk mail to hype stocks so they can sell shares they own in the companies at a profit.
It has been estimated that 15% of all spam or junk e-mail is made up of messages that "pump" stocks that are later "dumped".
Developed by web giant VeriSign the anti-fraud software works by keeping an eye on real-time trading activity.
"This gives brokers a jump on the attackers and raises the bar," said Perry Tancredi, senior manager of anti-fraud services at Verisign.
Cashing in
Pump and dump schemes involve stocks that have had their price artificially inflated. This can be done by manipulating the market but often it is done by sending out a spam run tricking small investors to cash in on a stock.
The fraudsters then quickly sell the overhyped shares collecting profits for themselves and causing investors and brokerages to lose money.
A study of such scams in 2006 concluded that spammers can regularly make a return of up to 6% via such schemes.
This is basic lying, cheating and stealing and the message to anyone engaging in these shenanigans is they are going to get caught."
John Stark, SEC
They are regarded by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as one of the most common internet frauds costing billions of dollars a year. Typically scammers target so-called penny stocks for these scams.
"Investors need to be extra careful when they are investing in this kind of company because they can lose all of their money and these stocks are particularly vulnerable to manipulation more than ever because of the internet," said John Stark, head of internet enforcement at the SEC.
Red flag
Mr Tancredi said Verisign's fraud detection kit would help "decrease the time between the attack being launched and the brokerage being able to respond".
Before now, he said, brokerages relied on counter measures such as restrictive stock trading or analysis packages that only spotted a problem when money had gone.
Verisign's software is a module that brokers can add to their in-house trading system that alerts anti-fraud teams to look more closely at trades that exhibit certain behaviour patterns.
Spam in e-mail inbox, BBC
Up to 15% of spam is made up of "pump and dump" messages
"What this self-learning behavioural engine does is look at the different attributes of the event, not necessarily about the computer or where you are logging on from but about the actual transaction, the trade, the amount of the trade," said Mr Tancredi.
"For example have you liquidated all of your assets in stock that you own in order to buy one penny stock?" he said. "Another example is when a customer who normally trades tech stock on Nasdaq all of a sudden trades a penny stock that has to do with health care and is placing a trade four times more than normal."
Because the software looks at the behaviour of a penny stock it can cope with cases where those buying shares are doing so for the first time or have been victims of identity theft.
"The fraudster may buy that one stock in multiple small chunks to stay under the radar, but we can pick that up and send an alert on that," Mr Tancredi said.
"More subtly it will detect and question if say five people at the same brokerage are trading this one penny stock in a short period of time and that stock has shown a spike in volatility," he said, "that will also raise a red flag."
'Investor confidence'
No exact figures are available for how much scammers using "pump and dump" schemes are getting away with.
Geoff Turner, a senior analyst with Forrester Research, said it was easy to understand why figures were vague.
"People are somewhat shy on reporting losses because it erodes investor confidence," he said.
One pump and dump scheme revolving GTX Global involved tens of millions of dollars, said Mr Turner.
He said software than could effectively stop this kind of fraud in its tracks was something the business world would welcome.
"Pump and dump increases the cost of doing business in terms of the loss in the marketplace," he said.
"VeriSign has taken a proven concept in counter fraud control activity from what they have been successful in doing in the online banking environment and that is to gauge the risk of a specific account activity on the fly and score the risk when they see something that departs from the norm."
Mr Stark from the SEC told the BBC that it could not comment on a commercial product, but said the Commission worked closely with many agencies to pursue fraudsters.
He said: "This is basic lying, cheating and stealing and the message to anyone engaging in these shenanigans is they are going to get caught."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7552009.stm
SMAN
Things are not always what they seem...
Stop by the ETERNITY board for a contrarian approach to all matters of life.
DISCLAIMER... I currently have no buy or sell orders open for MNTY.
In fact, my only trades were as follows for this year 2008:
01/16/2008 3:58 PM Bought 65000 MNTY@$0.0007 $-50.00 Executed Detail
01/15/2008 11:00 PM Bought 65000 MNTY@$0.0007 $-45.50 Executed Detail
01/15/2008 11:00 PM Bought 65000 MNTY@$0.0007 $-45.50 Executed Detail
01/04/2008 3:31 PM Bought 94545 MNTY@$0.0011 $-108.4995 Executed Detail
01/04/2008 2:30 PM Bought 70000 MNTY@$0.0013 $-95.50 Executed Detail
01/03/2008 11:00 PM Bought 94545 MNTY@$0.0011 $-103.9995 Executed Detail
01/03/2008 11:00 PM Bought 70000 MNTY@$0.0013 $-91.00 Executed Detail
01/03/2008 11:00 PM Bought 94545 MNTY@$0.0011 $-103.9995 Executed Detail
01/03/2008 11:00 PM Bought 70000 MNTY@$0.0013 $-91.00 Executed Detail
04/09/2008 12:17 PM Bought 127208 MNTY@$0.0002 $-29.9416 Executed Detail
04/09/2008 Bought 127208 MNTY@$0.0002 $-25.4416 Executed Detail
YEAH, BUT ALL i GOT TO DRINK IS THE COMMUNION WINE, AND i CAN'T TOUCH THAT
Call me forgetful but what did Dez tell you? Did i miss a post or an email somewhere?
yeah, but I've posted most of that. The biggest killer is upping the A/S to 10 bil, then the continued non transparency from Jason. Who knows how much more he's hiding, but Jason has stated there will be more dilution
So is it something Des has told you now that has changed your mind about the co.
Dez did tell me that, and hard to know if it was true at that time, but I do believe it was true at that time, but the BOD has taken a lot more time than expected, and injected invogue, lost time is lost money, and invogue made it worse imo
First,I'm totally on your side.That being said what about that post of your's in Jan. stating Dez said that finance was not a problem?
mnty pps will go to sleep for quite a while, until there is a dramatic change with the co.
yeah, I really do think it's dead, the company is fine, but the stock will need a miracle to hold anything past .0002
Do either of you have any hope? or should i say "Faith"
it's only dead if Jason wants it dead, it's all on him now. peeps will not buy here and you can't sell. Limbo until the right deceisions are made, frankly I don't think he is capable of getting us out of this mess.
lol, yeah, I've been watching it
HUstla and Puffy going at it all for naught. still no news from a blog, Amir stating to look like a ghost town already.
I can't wait to see what this week brings, it's going to be very interesting, no doubt.
will be interested in mnty's volume on teusday and we should get some news from Jason so he can dump more shares.
month maybe,lol.
Take care.
---
LIVE4TRUTH.
-V. =)
a whole week of pentance
here you are you trouble maker, time for penance.lol
MNTY is not a recommended buy at this time.
I think I've been forgiven, and I get to remain mod here since I made 2 post in the required time.
forgive me father, for I have sinned. I have caused a great divide on the MNTY board. My temper has overtaken me. Please allow me to be forgiven one more time.
.<font color=red>Finally (get it ,red ,embarrassed)
.<font color=green>NOT ENOUGH OF THIS COLOR LATELY!LOL
ya think? lol
.<font color=red>Regulation D, Rule 504/SCOR Filing
http://www.toolkit.com/small_business_guide/sbg.aspx?nid=P12_6150
When raising money for the business, various securities law issues may come into play. You'll need to follow the rules carefully in order to preserve limited liability under the law.
If a small business owner is interested in raising capital from the public by issuing securities, a federal Regulation D, Rule 504 exemption coupled with a uniform state small corporate offering registration (SCOR) filing will be the most common route taken. Both the federal exemption and the state filing limit the amount raised to $1 million in a one-year period. To prevent abuse, a second offering cannot be made for six months after the first 12 months expire. Effectively, the small business owner could rely on this combination to raise $1 million every 18 months.
In addition, there is another option called Regulation A, subject to a different set of rules, but it allows a business to "test the waters" for interest before undertaking more formal filing actions.
Unlike other federal exemptions, the Rule 504 exemption contains no onerous restrictions (other than the $1 million limitation). The issuer is free to advertise the securities and to solicit potential investors. In addition, there are no restrictions on the number or type of investors. Nor are there any resale restrictions on the securities. The SEC requires that Form D be filed after the first sale, notifying the SEC that the issuer has used the exemption. However, it is wise to file this form prior to offering the securities for sale, in case the SEC has any questions related to registration and exemption, and refrain from any advertisements, offers or sales until the SEC approves the form.
dont use this one, lol
.<font color=fusia> it even works when you mispell
.<font color=olive>**got lots of colors: black, silver, gray, white, maroon, red, purple, fuschsia, green, lime, olive, yellow, navy, blue, teal, and agua!!!**
.<font color=green>**raspberry???**
.<font color=fusia> Did that look like rasberry?
.<font color=rasberry> ME NIETHER
opps, can't spell
by the way, thats magenta!lol
.<font color=magenta>where did get that monkey? he scares me!lol
.<font color=magneta>**MNTY ROCKS!!!**
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