SPNG and dozens of other OTC scams had real products.
The tell is the willingness to engage with toxic financiers, the PRs and social media full of lies, threats and copropraxia, and the refusal to comply with US Securities laws.
It's very obvious, of course, that HJOE is a scam, and if people can't see that, it's hardly the SEC's fault.
"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it."
Upton Sinclair
"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public."
H. L. Mencken