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GBOE 100% Scam!! Being worked by a crew right now.
Stay far away from any company associated with David Otto
SEC Charges Seattle Attorney and Accomplices with Orchestrating Stock Dumping Scheme
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2009-157
Spam Complaints Chart
MitoPharm Web profile touting allegedly non-existent products
Washington, D.C., July 13, 2009 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Seattle-based securities lawyer David Otto and several others with conducting a fraudulent “pump-and-dump” scheme in which they secretly unloaded more than $1 million in penny stock of a company touting non-existent anti-aging products.
The SEC alleges that a series of misleading press releases and Web profiles were used to tout purported beverages and nutritional supplements of Seattle-based MitoPharm Corporation. With claims that its products had anti-aging benefits from an ingredient extracted from a berry used in traditional Chinese medicine, MitoPharm’s stock price more than quadrupled during the aggressive stock promotion campaign. However, the SEC alleges that MitoPharm’s products were not “available” as advertised and were still in the developmental stage. Full-color photos featuring beverage cans and pill bottles were only mock-ups of non-existent products.
“Attorneys are supposed to function as gatekeepers in the securities industry,” said Marc J. Fagel, Director of the SEC’s San Francisco Regional Office. “Otto and his firm used phony documents to corner the market in a start-up company’s stock, and then profited at the expense of unsuspecting investors when the stock-promoting campaign caused the share price to briefly skyrocket before plummeting back down to earth.”
The SEC’s complaint, filed in federal court in Seattle, charges Otto, his associate Todd Van Siclen of Seattle, and Houston-based stock promoter Charles Bingham and his company Wall Street PR, Inc. MitoPharm and its CEO Pak Peter Cheung of Vancouver were also charged.
Additional Materials
* Litigation Release No. 21126
* SEC Complaint
* MitoPharm Web profile
According to the SEC’s complaint, the scheme began in late 2006 when Otto, who was hired by Cheung, arranged to purchase a publicly traded shell company as a merger partner for MitoPharm. Otto and Van Siclen drafted opinion letters to MitoPharm’s transfer agent filled with false statements in order to secure supposedly “freely tradable” stock certificates for individuals and entities secretly controlled by Otto.
The SEC’s complaint alleges that Cheung hired Bingham on Otto’s recommendation, and they embarked on an aggressive public relations campaign that centered on the misleading promotion of two key products — “Restorade” and “Stamina Solutions” — that did not exist. They developed promotional materials that falsely stated that both Restorade and Stamina Solution were “[a]vailable as functional beverage or as a soft gel capsule.”
According to the SEC’s complaint, Cheung had a graphics artist create renderings of what the containers for MitoPharm’s products could look like in order to accompany the written text of MitoPharm’s Web site and other promotional materials. Written materials and Web profiles created by Bingham and others were disseminated to investors with the fake images and present-tense descriptions of the products.
The SEC further alleges that as the promotional campaign caused the stock price to rise above $2.30, Otto sold his shares for more than $1 million and Bingham netted an additional $300,000. The massive selling of the stock caused the price to fall to a nickel per share by November 2007.
The SEC’s complaint alleges that the defendants violated the antifraud and other provisions of the federal securities laws. The SEC seeks injunctive relief, disgorgement and financial penalties from the defendants as well as penny stock bars for Otto, Van Siclen, and Cheung, and an officer-and-director bar against Cheung.
The SEC acknowledges the assistance of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
# # #
For more information, contact:
Sheila E. O’Callaghan
Branch Chief, SEC’s San Francisco Regional Office
(415) 705-2459
BEHL,Continues its downward spiral..I post of it trading dangerously close to the lower bollie and my post was deleted! MODS are bias toward factual posts and dont want to raise fear so they can continue selling they're shares
Probably got a clue and realized that he was being played by Baeten, Ryan and crew.
Just distribution of worthless paper to suckers......
Another mod disappeared from BEHL,,Wonder whats going on behind the scenes?
This tells a story note that Dan Ryan is a main part of PSC, adds a little context to the scam. Notice the "who me, i just answer the phone" LOLLLLL Leads around to so very many Montreal scams.....
http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page66?oid=44654&sn=Detail
http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page66?oid=44763&sn=Detail
Good to see another scam board pop up, any awareness is good awareness.
NHXD is being pumped by known scam pushers right now, serial R/S with ties jailed stock fraudsters.
SUGO is bad also 100million -200million market cap recently an empty shell with an ongoing investigation by the BCSC.
PS.
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/board.aspx?board_id=15452
is the answer to your PM. they actually allowed a full board regarding the charges, which is somewhat suprising as the parent company ADVFN actually shut down and does not allow posting on their stock boards regarding the company its self (british version of Ihub as it is traded in Britain). Pretty dishonest IMO
looks like this chap disagrees with everyone
Posted by: greedy__malone Date: Tuesday, August 18, 2009 3:02:59 PM
In reply to: None Post # of 36024
I just don't understand why false and misleading statements would be needed here to help garner some kind of support or interest. Makes no sense for a legitimate business does it?
BEHL is off the SHO list so the FTD problem has been solved
There are currently no approved bio jet fuels in use by the airline industry.
That's 2 bogus statements just today. And I haven't even read all the posts.
i'm working on it lol
Who was the IRP on UPDV ?
That's old old. you need to catch up on what's going on. LOL
7(so far) pinkies hit by SEC this week
May lead to clues as to why the removal from another?
7 pinkies last week including one of Dales.
These guys think it's a joke LOL
Didn't think they'd ever get around to magnum
6 more pinkies gone today
•
Magnum Resources, Inc. (MGRI)
•
Manakoa Services Corp. (n/k/a Teslavision Corp.) (TSLV)
•
Maxus Technology Corp. (MXUS)
•
Med/Waste, Inc. (MWDSQ)
•
Medsearch Technologies, Inc. (MDSX)
•
Meisenheimer Capital, Inc. (MEIS)
Say bye bye UPDV
http://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2009/lr21179.htm
Microcap stock fraud
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The "night singer of shares" sold stock on the streets during the South Sea Bubble. Amsterdam, 1720.Microcap stock fraud is a form of securities fraud involving stocks of "microcap" companies, generally defined in the United States as those with a market capitalization of under $250 million. Its prevalence has been estimated to run into the billions of dollars a year.[1][2][3] Many microcap stocks are penny stocks, which trade at below $5 a share.
Microcap stock fraud generally takes place among stocks traded on the OTC Bulletin Board and the Pink Sheets Electronic Quotation Service, stocks which usually do not meet the requirements to be listed on the stock exchanges. Some fraud occurs among stocks traded on the NASDAQ Small Cap Market, now called the NASDAQ Capital Market.[4]
Microcap fraud encompasses several types of investor fraud:
Pump and dump schemes, involving use of false or misleading statements to hype stocks, which are "dumped" on the public at inflated prices. Such schemes involve telemarketing and Internet fraud.[5]
Chop stocks, which are stocks purchased for pennies and sold for dollars, providing both brokers and stock promoters massive profits. Brokers are often paid "under the table" undisclosed payoffs to sell such stocks.[6][7]
Other unscrupulous brokerage practices, including "bait and switch," unauthorized trading, and "no net sales" policies in which customers are prohibited or discouraged from selling stocks.[8]
Contents [hide]
1 Pump and dump
2 Chop stocks
3 Organized crime involvement
4 Microcap stock fraud in popular culture
5 References
6 Further reading
7 External links
[edit] Pump and dump
Main article: Pump and dump
[edit] Chop stocks
A chop stock is an equity, usually trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market, OTC Bulletin Board or Pink Sheets listing services, is purchased at pennies per share and sold by unscrupulous stock brokers to unsuspecting retail customers at several dollars per share.[9][10]
This practice differs from a pump and dump in that the brokerages make money, in addition to hyping the stock, by marketing a security they purchase at a deep discount. In this practice, the brokerage firm generally acquires the block of stock by purchasing a large block of the securities (usually from a large shareholder who is not affiliated with the underlying company) at a negotiated price that is well below the current market price (generally 40% to 50% below the then-current quoted offer/ask price) or it acquires the stock as payment for a consulting agreement.[11]
The subject stocks usually have little or no liquidity prior to the block purchase. After the block is purchased, the firm's participating brokers will sell the stock to their brokerage customers at the then-current quoted offer/ask price, to the often victimized investors who are generally unaware of this practice. This large difference, or "spread" between the then-current quoted offer/ask price and the deeply discounted price the block of stock was purchased is almost always shared with the stockbroker at the firm who solicited the trade. For this reason, there is a large benefit and an inherent conflict of interest for the firm and the broker to sell these "proprietary products".
Because the firm is technically "at risk" on the block of stock (if the price of the stock drops below the price at which the block was purchased, the firm will be at a loss on the stock) and stock is usually sold at or even slightly below the then-current prevailing market price offer/ask, the practice is still legal in the United States. In fact, it is not required that this profit spread be disclosed to the client, since it is not technically a "commission". When a brokerage house sells such stock from its own inventory, a client will receive a trade confirmation stating the transaction was done as "Riskless Principal" or "Markup", which in fact, just like commissions, is also revenue to the firm, and such a practice is often subject to abuse. Only the amount of fees charged over and above the offer/ask are commissions, and must be disclosed. But even though it is still legal, it is frowned upon by the Securities Exchange Commission, and they are using other laws and methods of attack to indirectly thwart the practice.
[edit] Organized crime involvement
Microcap fraud has been a major source of income for organized crime.[12] Mob figures from each of the Five Families of the New York mafia, as well as the New Jersey mob, have become involved in stock scams.
Mafia involvement in 1990s stock swindles was first explored by investigative reporter Gary Weiss in a December 1996 Business Week article.[13] Weiss later explored the Mafia's Wall Street scams in a book.[14]
Organized crime elements were believed to have been short-selling chop stocks in the late 1990s.[15]
[edit] Microcap stock fraud in popular culture
Microcap stock fraud has been explored in several books and movies.
A book that explored microcap fraud was the 2003 book Born to Steal by Gary Weiss. It described the microcap underworld of the 1990s through the eyes of a young broker named Louis Pasciuto. Although the book focuses on Mafia infiltration of brokerages, it also describes in detail the operation of microcap fraud.
Microcap fraud was explored in the anonymously written books License to Steal and in The Scorpion and the Frog. Both books explore pump and dump schemes in some detail but, unlike Born to Steal, do not provide the real names of the specific firms and people described.
This kind of fraud has also provided the title for a book by Robert H. Tillman and Michael L. Indergaard called Pump and Dump: The Rancid Rules of the New Economy.
A fictional account of pump and dump schemes can be seen in the movie Boiler Room. According to press accounts, the director and writer of the film worked briefly as a cold-caller for the Stratton Oakmont brokerage house, which was shut down by regulators in the late 1990s.
Another movie exploring brokerage chicanery is Wall Street, starring Michael Douglas and Charlie Sheen.
A pump and dump scam was also the subject of several episodes of the popular HBO series, The Sopranos, pulled off by Matthew Bevilaqua and Sean Gismonte.
On an episode of the legal drama Law & Order, entitled "Trade This," the murder of a young stockbroker at a prestigious firm is found to be related to his boss's involvement in several pump and dump scams financed by members of a Mafia crime family. Similarly, in the franchise's first computer game, Law & Order: Dead on the Money, the victim is a female stockbroker who was being investigated for a pump and dump scam involving a biotech company's suspicious IPO.
This strategy was also fictionalised by Jeffrey Archer in his book Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less.
[edit] References
Avoiding Boiler Rooms in Stock Fraud Swindles and BoilerRoom Investment Schemes
The heart of a fraudulent telemarketing operation is usually a "boiler room," a rented space with desks, telephones, and experienced salespeople who talk to hundreds of people from across the country every day.
In a typical investment-related boiler room the "brokers" ( registered reps ) may sit crowded together in a room with long tables with up to seven phone stations per table. The firm likely holds mandatory sales meetings every morning at which time sales techniques are demonstrated and "scripts" for the firm's "house stock" are distributed. Brokers are expected to follow the script and only give customers the information it contains. They are discouraged from doing any outside research, and are told to rely on the firm's research and representations.
After the morning sales meeting, the reps are expected to spend the entire day on the phone. The firm expects a high volume of sales, and if brokers do not stay on the phone, they are fired. One registered rep told an examiner that he made 250 calls on a good day; 70 on a bad day. All of his calls had been previously "qualified" by an unregistered cold caller.
Many telemarketing firms utilize a monitoring process which randomly tape-records the sales conversations of its telemarketers and they are made aware of it. This acts as internal policing for the company to ensure that no incoming cheques are misdirected from the main operation.
False Profits Penny Stocks
Overseas Boilerroom Investments
Today, con artists see that investors are paying increasing attention to overseas investment opportunities so a new generation of scams has also gone international. Most troubling is a growing pattern of former U.S. boiler room operators who have moved their telephone sales operations outside the U.S. and Canada to Hong Kong, the Bahamas, Thailand, Panama, Costa Rica, Europe, Liberia, and even South Africa.
The locations of the boiler rooms are carefully chosen, with con artists dialing out of countries that may have no extradition arrangements with our domestic law enforcement agencies.
There are also differing views among nations about what are acceptable market activities. For example, the London Stock Exchange does not ban "bear raids" in which speculators try to drive down the price of a stock through short selling, a practice which is sharply limited under New York Stock Exchange Rules.
In some countries, including Italy, Sweden, Belgium and Taiwan, there exist few prohibitions against insider trading. Greece and Kenya are among the nations with no government agency to safeguard the interests of investors by guarding against marketplace misconduct.
Overseas Boiler Room Expose - special series by Christopher Carey
Belgians Battle Boiler Room Investment Fraud Business
01/01 - A Belgian judge sentenced long-time boiler room fraudster Canadian Jack Kronis (aka Jack Lewis) to seven years in prison for his role in running a fraudulent securities ring out of Holland where Dutch securities laws are considered lax. He and thirteen other scammers, who got sentences which ranged up to ten years ( but may be eligible for release in three ) were also ordered to repay the $33 million defrauded from 280 investors of Grimaldi Hofmann and Co.
Kronis, 41, previously had a role in other such stock scams while working at Durham Securities in Canada where 827 people lost $5 million. For that he served six months and was ordered to repay $837,000 after pleading guilty to four counts of fraud.
Still pending is his U.S. trial for defrauding Americans as far back as 1990 in schemes which sold grossly inflated metal commodities such as indium and germanium.
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Given the Rubber Boot
On August 21, 2001, the Thailand SEC filed a criminal complaint against Heliocentric International Co., Ltd., Vladislov Ivanov Patrov, Roy Danny Kamiew, Brian Hare and Mark Pavic on the grounds that they conspired to conduct unlicensed securities businesses in Thailand under the name of the Wellington International.
The fancy office location promoted in their brochures was simply a switchboard service to their forty phone line, low rent boiler-room.
Following a raid in May, seventeen foreigners were arrested for having no work permit and the documents seized as evidence determined that the location was used to phone and lure overseas investors into making investments in yet another overseas market.
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I have a list of scam companies that I want others to look out for. Do not trust them. I lost over $10,000. The names are: WMA, Jeff Paul, Jake Bernstein Trading Company, Carlton Sheets, Dan Kennedy, Ted Warren Stock Portfolio and Dundas System.
Anne Bolander 08/17/02
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PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (Reuters) -- 07/21/03 A gang of 20 foreigners accused of running a hi-tech international telecoms and investment "boiler room" scam out of Cambodia have been expelled from the country, according to police.
The group of 14 Britons, two Americans, an Australian, a New Zealander, a Thai and a Filipino, were rounded up last week in a military police swoop on an office block in the heart of Phnom Penh, capital of the impoverished southeast Asian nation.
Investigators said they had found stacks of computers and hi-tech hardware, including a $100,000 broadband Internet server they said had been used to build an illegal international telephone gateway.
Using this, the alleged conmen were cold-calling unsuspecting people across the globe virtually for free to try to get them to put their money in risky or non-existent investments, police said.
Legal experts said war-ravaged Cambodia probably lacked the relevant financial or telecoms laws to launch a full prosecution of the gang.
The telecoms ministry, however, said it had been cheated of $27,278 in international call charges and insisted on repayment.
"They have paid the bill and all of them left on Saturday," said Chhay Sinarith, deputy chief of police in Phnom Penh.
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It's full steam ahead for `boiler room' con artists
The premise of financial scams is human greed and although gullible customers get fleeced of small fortunes, many boiler rooms are not nearly as greedy as the investors they con
By John Aglionby THE GUARDIAN , LONDON - Jul 26, 2003
The three watches on the man's wrist were all set to different time zones. One gave the time in New Zealand, the second in South Africa and the third in New York. On the table in front of him were three mobile phones, one for each group of customers in each of the three countries, who all thought they were calling him locally. He was actually in Taiwan.
The man with the watches, a Briton known as "Mr Big," showed a second man sitting opposite him a fax he had just received, the contents of which left little to the imagination. "It basically said: `I'm going to come over there and I'm going to kill you. I'm going to kill all your family unless I get my money back. I've spent this much money with you.' It was really horrible," says the second man, who gives his name as Barry Stephens.
"Let me show you something," Mr Big continued. He picked up one of the phones, dialled the number on the fax and checked his watches.
"Mr So-and-so, I've just got your fax this morning," Stephens quoted Mr Big as saying. Once the torrent of invective at the other end of the line had subsided, Mr Big reportedly continued: "Look, sir, we're a brokerage company. We can't guarantee you're going to make money.
"Stocks go up and down. You're a man of the world, you know that. But what I can tell you is that I have another opportunity here... "
According to Stephens, "The conversation ended with the man agreeing to send another US$20,000 after he had just sent him a fax saying he was going to kill him."
The incident he describes is a snapshot of the world of boiler rooms, where members of the public send complete strangers who claim to be stockbrokers vast sums on the promise of making massive and rapid returns.
More than 75 percent of investors end up losing all their money. Despite gaining worldwide publicity in 2000 with the release of the Hollywood blockbuster Boiler Room, starring Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Diesel and Ben Affleck, thousands of people continue to get conned every year.
Stephens, who claims he was "intimately involved" in Mr Big's brokerage for several years, approached The Guardian after hearing that a suspected boiler room was shut down in Cambodia last week. He claims he wants to expose for the first time the full details of how boiler rooms have fleeced tens of thousands of people all over the world in the past decade, to help prevent others from a similar fate.
Out of fear for his safety -- one man who allegedly double-crossed a former boiler-room partner was gunned down in his BMW in Bangkok last year -- Stephens has asked that his real name not be used.
The premise on which all boiler rooms operate is human greed, he says.
"People think they're going to turn US$10,000 into US$100,000 by doing nothing. They don't think, it's too good to be true. They don't stop to think, if it's so great why are you telling me about it? Why am I so special?" he said.
Stephens says the operation he witnessed succeeded through an elaborate web of deception, fraud and highly refined, high-pressure telephone sales tactics in which most people didn't realize they had been snared until it was too late.
The "sting" would begin with a harmless call from a sweet-sounding, usually female, voice known as a "qualifier." She (or he) would ask if the company's database records were still accurate and offer a free subscription to a company newsletter, says Stephens.
The target would receive this glossy newsletter for several weeks. It was usually up to 24 pages long and contained a selection of business news. Among the genuine features, it would contain one article, often very small, about a company developing a new product or process. This company would have been bought by the boiler room, and listed on the NASDAQ, where the requirements are much less stringent than the New York or London stock exchanges. The boiler room would then start to inflate the share price.
"But before they do that -- say when the price is US$2 a share -- a broker would come to you and say, `Look, I represent [the boiler room],'" Stephens says. "We have some inside information, a bit naughty, shouldn't tell you, but this stock is going to go through the roof in the next two weeks." Among techniques used to convince male waverers were arguments such as: "Who wears the trousers in your family? Do you make the decisions, or your wife?"
These callers are known as "openers." Some victims would send the money straight away but those who didn't would receive a call a couple of weeks later from their "opener," who would point out that the money had not been sent but the stock had continued to climb -- because the boiler room had continued to manipulate it.
He, or she -- Stephens says women "brokers" are usually much more successful -- might offer to backdate the transaction so the investor could "buy" at the original price. With an offer like this, coupled with a little research showing that the stock had indeed performed as claimed, most people were hooked.
"But that's the last they hear about it," Stephens says. "They don't get any stock certificates, they don't get anything. So these people will eventually call back. They'll watch the NASDAQ and see the stock price go down because no stocks were ever bought, the money just went into the back account and that was it. Thank you very much."
Some people who call back in a panic are put through to a "cooler." Their task is to cool down the customer before putting them through to a "loader." Their job is to persuade the anxious investor that the share price has fallen because the company has encountered a hitch but that everything is on track, and it would actually be better to buy more stock while it is cheap rather than sell.
Others who call are just given the run around; told that their original "opener" is no longer at the company. "Eventually, 90 percent just go to sleep," Stephens says. "In other words, they just get fed up and write off the money."
Those who don't give up and start making threats are connected to the best "coolers." Sometimes the brokers will then try and fob off the investor by saying that there are no buyers at present and they should call back.
"The most threatening people were allowed to get some, or all, of their money back, though," Stephens says. "But the coolers were only ever allowed to return the money of 25 percent of the people who demanded their money back."
When too many people started complaining the company would just shut down and reopen under a different name, often less than 24 hours later. Mr Big's boiler room went through several incarnations before he was caught. He is now in prison. Police found a dozen passports in his possession when he was arrested.
The final category of boiler-room employee are the "sloppers." They come into the picture when a firm closes and changes its name. A slopper will call up a worried investor and say he has heard about his or her plight and wants to help recover their money. In order to do this there will be a fee, depending on the size of the original investment.
The irony is, says Stephens, that, relatively speaking, many boiler rooms are not nearly as greedy as the investors they con. He thinks about US$2 million his boiler room raked in each month went on expenses. He saw one monthly phone bill for US$450,000 that was about two inches thick, and he knows that tens of thousands of pounds went into making the company and its operations appear genuine.
"If you went to the company you would have sat down with a broker, sat down with a manager and you would have been convinced this was genuine. They would have bombarded you with pedigrees and testimonials.
"Meanwhile, in the same building, there's the boiler room. They're all in shorts -- some guys are standing on their heads doing yoga, taking the piss, bouncing baseballs off walls and catching them while talking on headsets.
"They have all the objections on the wall, pasted up. Anything anyone might say, below it is the stock answer in order to get by."
Most of the people involved were Jekyll and Hyde characters, Stephens says. On the phone they appeared the epitome of decorum, the reality was different. "These are the dregs of the earth, drug addicts, wasters, used-car salesmen," he says. "If you met them in person you wouldn't buy a box of matches from them. You wouldn't talk to them at a bar. But over the phone they've got it."
Victims corroborate Stephens's claims. In 1997 and 1998, an Australian named Lance (he is too embarrassed to allow his surname to be printed) was persuaded by a broker to part with more than ?8,000 (US$12,923) to buy shares in two companies allegedly on the cusp of greatness.
"No pressure was put on me," he says. "They just went for the soft sell and I bought 1,000 shares of each."
He received share certificates but has no idea whether they are genuine. Three months later, when the shares started losing value rapidly, he tried to sell, but the broker had ceased operations and its accounts had been passed on to a second broker. Lance said this firm was initially just as convincing as the first.
"They even sent round a representative but as soon as I pressed them they, too, dropped away," he said.
Two years later, in August 2000, Lance was suddenly contacted by a third broker.
He convinced Lance to send him the share certificates so he could sell them to people wanting to negatively gear their stock portfolios for tax purposes by buying the worthless stock and selling blue-chip shares in return.
"I gave up when [the broker] insisted I buy the blue-chip shares first," he said. "It's stupid to do it once, it's insane to do it again."
How to Spot a Stock Scam
By Selena Maranjian
April 29, 2009 | Comments (1)
Bernie Madoff is old news. Every day seems to bring a new scam in the investing world.
In Toronto, mogul Weizhen Tang -- the self-proclaimed "Chinese Warren Buffett" -- allegedly promised his investors that they'd earn 1% weekly. He's now under investigation by U.S. and Canadian officials, after some investors claimed they had difficulty withdrawing their money from his funds. (As of early April 2009, Tang denied any wrongdoing.)
Tang's alleged promise seemed odd when compared to the enticement of loftier returns -- until I realized that 1% per week seems low. I bet that conservative, reasonable figure was safe-sounding enough to lure in many investors who might otherwise have been more skeptical. But as modest as 1%-a-week returns seem, remember that these days, many bank accounts are paying 1% per year. At 1% per week, your money might enjoy something like 68% growth in a single year -- and multiply 100-fold in roughly nine years. See how wildly over-the-top that promise can be?
For perspective's sake, here are the long-term growth rates of some of the very best stock market performers. These figures represent the upper limits of the sort of returns you can reasonably expect over the long haul:
Company
20-Year Average Annual Growth
Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO)
33%*
EMC (NYSE: EMC)
29%
Best Buy (NYSE: BBY)
28%
Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT)
23%
Altria (NYSE: MO)
15%
Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT)
14%
Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL)
14%
Data: Yahoo! Finance.
*19-year average.
CDs that can't deliver
Some potential portfolio perils can be even more subtle. CDs based in other nations have recently attracted many investors' attention by offering steep interest rates. As I type this, domestic one-year CDs are averaging 2.35%. But people searching online for better rates are finding 6.5% and more abroad. I even read about a 90-day Mexico-based CD paying 12%.
But you have to think twice before investing in such vehicles. For one thing, they're not issued by banks insured by the FDIC, which means you won't get any sort of protection if that bank goes bust. Some international CDs may work out well for investors, particularly if they're from major, established institutions. But on the whole, they're far riskier than U.S.-based CDs.
If you're willing to stomach a reasonable amount of risk, dividend-paying stocks might be your best best for investments that'll offer both income and growth. At least there, you'll have a better idea of what you're getting into.
Notorious spammer Ralsky pleads guilty to stock scam
Track this topic Print story Father and son-in-law spammers face slammer
By John Leyden • Get more from this author
Posted in Spam, 23rd June 2009 10:05 GMT
Free whitepaper – Avoiding 7 common mistakes of IT security compliance
Notorious spammer Alan Ralsky faces up to 87 months' imprisonment after pleading guilty to participation in a pump-and-dump stock spam scam.
Ralsky, 64, of West Bloomfield, Michigan and four accomplices pleaded guilty on Monday to conspiracy to various wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering and CAN-SPAM Act offences, as part of a racket estimated to have netted $3m in illicit profits over just 18 months.
Between January 2004 and September 2005, the group used junk mail to build interest in low-value, thinly-traded stocks owned by individuals based in China and Hong Kong.
The spam emails falsely claimed the stocks were about to surge, in a bid to tempt recipients to invest. The gang invested in the stocks while they were low then sold them as they reached a peak of false expectation, before the inevitable crash'n'burn.
The masterminds of the fraud - Ralsky and his son-in-law Scott K Bradley, 38, also of of West Bloomfield, Michigan - face prison sentences of up to seven years and six and a half years, respectively, under the terms of a plea bargaining agreement. Each also faces possible fines of up to $1m.
John S Bown, 45, of Fresno, California, who admitted using a botnet of compromised PCs to distribute spam, faces five years behind bars and a fine of up to $75,000 over his role in the scam. Bown, the former chief exec of ISP, GDC Layer One, served as the CTO of the scam business, according to prosecutors.
The trio, along with their partners in spam - William C Neil, 46, of Fresno, California, and James E Fite, 36, of Culver City, California - are due to be sentenced in Detroit on 29 October. Three others, one based in China, have also admitted involvement in the scam, while a further three people are awaiting trial. The case was brought following a three-year FBI-led investigation.
A DoJ statement on the case, explaining the mechanisms of the scam and charges against the gang in greater depth, can be found here. ®
Bootnote
Ralsky is a recidivist fraudster and unrepentant spammer. He unwisely boasted of his activities to local paper Detroit News back in 2002, letting slip enough information for mischief-makers to figure out his new home address and sign him up to a huge slew of advertising mailing lists and catalogues. He subsequently complained about this "harassment".
His career in spam is recorded in an extensive entry on Spamhaus' ROKSO list here.
Stock Alert Scams
Have you received an email from that looks like a grainy image telling you about a great stock that is "about to explode", "rocket through the roof" or is "hot"? It is a scam. Commonly called pump-and-dump, it is an old scam using the new technology. Usually, the stocks recommended are real U.S. penny stocks.
Pumping and dumping is one of the oldest and easiest cons around. Basically, the scammer buys some cheap penny stocks, sends out hundreds of thousands of emails like the one you received, waits for enough gullible idiots to buy some of the stock to drive up the price, and then sells his stock at a profit. In one sample case provided by the SEC, a scam involved shares of Apparel Manufacturing Associates Inc.. the stock went from 6 cents, on trading volume of 3,500 shares one day in December 2006 to over 19 cents per share on a volume of 484,568 shares by the next business day. And two days later, it hit 45 cents a share. But a week later, after the scammer sold out, Apparel Manufacturing stock was back down to 10 cents on volume of 65,350.
Since the scammer can be anywhere on the planet, and there is no connection between the investors and the scammer other than the one scam email, there is nothing to lead a trail back to the perpetrator. The victims buy the stock through their usual stock trader, Etrade, Ameritrade, Scott Trade or their analyst.
And since there are thousands of penny stocks on the U.S.-based OTC Bulletin Board, which is a share price quote service for companies that don't meet the stiffer requirements of major stock exchanges, or on "Pink Sheets".
It is estimated (according to Commtouch, an international e-mail security firm) that of the 160 billion email messages a day in 2006, 90% are spam, and of those, other research suggest that 15% (or 21 billion emails per day) are stock scams.
To avoid spam-filtering software, the scammers deliberately misspell words that the filters look for and use image files (JPEG or GIF files) to present the text as a pictures. And if you look closely at repeated e-mails touting the same stock, the words may be jiggled or appear in different sizes.
To send so many spam emails, the scammers use zombie computers: they use a botnet-herding viruses and worms infect ordinary people's computers and then send spam from them, unknown to the owner (they only may notice that their computer has slowed down). One bot found by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was sending e-mails from 226,525 computers.
Authorities are trying to catch the spammers. In January, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a complaint against Aleksey Kamardin, a 21-year-old Florida college student who they say made $82,960 in six weeks by manipulating 17 stocks. He bought shares in target companies, then hacked into victims' online investment accounts, sold their stocks and bought more shares in the targets. That drove up share prices, after which Kamardin then sold his stock. He wasn't captured though - it is reported that he fled to Russia.
The SEC announced Operation Spamalot in early 2007, which suspended trading for 10 days in 35 Pink Sheet companies that had been touted in pump-and-dump schemes.
The bottom line: don't buy stocks based on emails you receive from strangers! (May we say "duh!" ?)
Companies recently used in pump-and-dump scams:
Advanced Powerline Technologies Inc., America Asia Petroleum Corp., Amerossi International Group Inc., Apparel Manufacturing, Asgard Holdings Inc., Biogenerics Ltd., China Gold Corp., CTR Investments & Consulting Inc., DC Brands International Inc., Equal Trading Inc., Equitable Mining Corp., Espion International Inc., Goldmark Industries Inc., GroFeed Inc., Healtheuniverse Inc., Interlink Global Corp., Investigative Services Agencies Inc., iPackets International Inc., Koko Petroleum Inc., Leatt Corp., LOM Logistics Inc., Modern Energy Corp., National Healthcare Logistics Inc., Presidents Financial Corp., Red Truck Entertainment Inc., Relay Capital Corp., Rodedawg International Industries Inc., Rouchon Industries Inc., Software Effective Solutions Corp., Solucorp Industries Ltd., Sports-stuff.com Inc., UBA Technology Inc., Wataire Industries Inc., WayPoint Biomedical Holdings Inc. and Wineco Productions Inc.
For more information, visit the Securities and Exchange Commission website.
And if you have any information related to stock spams, email the SEC at 35suspensions@sec.gov.
Not to interupt your constant BEHL discussion [sic] but there is a very big scam stock that needs discussion and that is USSE can we discuss that stock for a while?
If the volume drops under 2 mil, don't the longs(pumpers) become the bag holders ?
Better make your money while you can ! The shocker is yet to come.
Agreed!
want a scam, check out DKSC!!
I know, but they have a good idea here, they just need to target scam companies and leave the real ones alone.
prsch3259
Everyone here has their own motives.. Mine is making money and that is why BEHL is such a great stock!!
There are plenty of scams out there, funny why they are targeting BEHL a company with real headquarters, products and growing every day.
I think going after scams is a great idea, just do proper DD and make sure they are scams.
prsch3259
It's really sad what you are doing.. nice pic there bud.
anyways, BEHL is 100% legit, no one can say otherwise, especially you, you have tried to destroy the company for the past week.. sad.. very sad...
It's already started. 3 days this last month the volume hit 50 mil or broke it. All 3 days the pps went down. Did it go down because buyers were coming in or because a dump was catching cautious bidders holding their bids back.
Note; It's with in driving distance of the good doctors operation, and if you look at the PR to the left, Erase the name of the trucking co. and it might just look familiar to you.
Also note; Actual names are given.
Please watch this. It' a real Algae bioreactor operation.
http://www.sunecoenergy.com/
BEHL,What will be in todays news? I/R will be pumping the dog piss out of it today for sure.How many shares have the dictators sold to all the newbies on the board at BEHL?As soon as they wiff through the 50mm promotional shares the dumping should occur.
WTWO This one is still in ? http://www.w2energy.com/
Along w/ a few others that were front loaded
Dale was the IRP there and it's been suspended.
GSAE, look at the target price in this link then look at the actual pps in the chart.
http://www.ludlowenergy.com/reports/gsae.html
Look at Dale Beatons disclaimer and you'll see a whole list of scam stocks.
That one goes way way back. lol
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A place to discuss OTCB stocks we think are scams or that are being promoted or front loaded.
The following are 100% scams IMO and should be avoided unless you enjoy losing money.
PFNO
EEGC major scam
SKGO
CPRK
GTLA
ALNS
JBII 100% scam being run by the usual suspects not just here but over multiple chat boards all over the net
BEHL
SARO
GBOE
AVEW
WDAS
EXPU
ITRO
CBJG
BZCN
HDUP
AGHD
CDOI
TGLN
RVGD
BRYN
CPRK
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