West Excelsior spam prompts warning by security firm
West Excelsior Enterprises Inc (U:WEXE)
Shares Issued 10,000,000
Last Close 11/30/2006 $0.70
Friday December 01 2006 - Street Wire
Also Shallbetter Industries Inc (U:SBNS) Street Wire
by Mike Caswell
Internet security firm PandaLabs is warning of a new method used by stock spammers, one that employs technology that allows aggressive stock promoters to dodge spam filters. The new e-mails get past a server's defences by using colourful pictures with slight differences that apparently fool anti-spam measures.
The new e-mails come in massive waves not seen before, PandaLabs says. "I am afraid that we are going to get used to attacks of this type," warns PandaLabs' Sergio Pineiro in a message on the company's website.
While the source of this unique new spam is a mystery, it first appeared touting a Vancouver mining junior that trades on the pink sheets, West Excelsior Enterprises Inc. The company went from 95 cents to $1.14 on Nov. 13 as spammers predicted a $4 price. (All figures are in U.S. dollars.)
Similar e-mails have also appeared in recent days touting Voxbox World Telecom Inc., a pink sheets Internet phone company with a White Rock address.
PandaLabs, which does not purport to be an expert on the stock market, surmises the e-mails are the work of a less-than-reputable shareholder. "It is possible that the author has bought [shares] at low prices during the previous days, in order to sell them to unsuspicious users that are seeing the price rising, and feel confident that it is a good deal," Mr. Pineiro says.
West Excelsior's ex-president in another spam company
While West Excelsior disavows any knowledge of the spam ("We want to assure you that West Excelsior is not responsible," a recording on its voice mail says), the company appears to be connected to another recent Vancouver spam stock, junior miner Shallbetter Industries Inc.
Mark Glusing, West Excelsior's president when the spam began, is the investor relations person for Shallbetter. It is not clear if he has anything to do with the e-mail campaigns, and he has not returned calls.
He took control of West Excelsior last February, but resigned as president part way through its spam campaign. His departure was preceded by e-mails advising investors to wait for a big announcement, in similar fashion to past Shallbetter news releases.
"It's going to explode on Monday Nov 13th," the e-mails predicted, referring to the day West Excelsior appointed Mr. Glusing's replacement, Kotni Rao (apparently the former accountant for a cement company from India).
The sequence of events (spam, news release and stock rising -- in that order) was nearly identical to Shallbetter's appointment of former University of Victoria president Dr. David Strong as an adviser 10 days earlier. Shallbetter went to a $1.92 high on Nov. 3 after spammers predicted something big was about to happen. The company's volume was 4.5 million shares the day it announced Dr. Strong's appointment and said he would direct an exploration team. It has since come down to 66 cents on no news.
Like Shallbetter, West Excelsior appears to have few assets. The company's most recent balance sheet shows $3,211 in assets and $51,083 in liabilities as of June 30, 2006. It says it has a deal for a property in Mexico, but it has not yet done any drilling or outlined any resources.
Still, West Excelsior closed over $1 seven times in November. For example it closed Nov. 6 at $1.13 on volume of 2.1 million shares, when Mr. Glusing was still president. It closed at 70 cents Thursday.
Stocks can trade higher on the reputation of management alone, but Mr. Glusing does not appear to have any success stories in his resume. He was the president of Poker.com, an on-line gambling company that lost money during his tenure.
In 2003 he was president of Pan Asia Communications Inc., which lost $182,000 in fiscal 2003 and $616,000 in fiscal 2004, on no revenue. Now known as Amersin Life Sciences Corp., the company last traded for a penny. Mr. Glusing has not returned repeated calls.
The pink sheets website warns investors Shallbetter and West Excelsior could be pump-and-dumps. Those seeking a quote for either company get a cautionary message. "We encourage investors to use care and due diligence in their investment decisions, as mass spam campaigns are commonly used by unscrupulous promoters in 'pump and dump' schemes," it says.
Shallbetter's president, Bruce Pridmore, contacted last weekend in China, says he is aware of the problem but does not know what to do about it. "Mike, notwithstanding your obvious concerns about this company, it is largely a good and well-intentioned board. It has a bundle of problems which most of the board realize and want to clean up. They are however being thwarted in ways that I do not yet understand," he says.
He did not respond to a question about Mr. Glusing's past.
Meanwhile, the spam continues. "JUST ADD WEXE TO YOUR RADAR," advised repeated e-mail's touting West Excelsior on Thursday morning.
© 2006 Canjex Publishing Ltd.
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