News Focus
News Focus
Replies to #83600 on Biotech Values
icon url

oldberkeley

09/16/09 10:36 AM

#83606 RE: medchal #83600

Re: GVBP.

I've read with interest your exchanges with posters on their board. I've PM'd a couple, just pointing out where they can get the 10-Q and other info, to absolutely no avail.

The peddling of snake oil has a long history; I imagine that there was a Neanderthal somewhere who scooped up a handful of pond scum and thought, "If I say that this cures what ails you, I'll bet I can trade it for something useful."

Most scams, frauds, cons, etc. are wrought on the ignorant; it's their lack of knowledge that makes the trick work. Personal and societal responses have always ranged from "Suckers deserve what they get" and "A fool and his money are soon parted" to "Hang the bastards" (and they were!) and "Let's create a regulatory body to stop such nonsense." We see the argument over this problem everyday on the national political stage.

What's interesting to me about obvious stock scams like GVBP is expressed quite openly by many of the posters who answered you. Ignorance is not what's happening here. They know it's a scam; they know a travel agency has not discovered a cure for cancer; they know that for every dollar made someone will lose a dollar. They simply don't give a crap.

Making money trumps all; truth, ethics, science. "Of course this is a BS stock, but it's up a thousand percent and damned if I'm not going to get mine!" (An actual response I received.)

They don't want to be saved from scams, they want to profit from them.
icon url

DewDiligence

09/16/09 8:18 PM

#83631 RE: medchal #83600

GVBP et al:

The SEC obviously has no interest in shutting down penny scams—I know of several which are still twitching after years of obfuscation…

I know of only one case off the top of my head where the SEC stepped in and halted trading in a biotech scam: BOCX. Alas, the halt was temporary and the scam continues to this day, as can be seen by the activity level on the BOCX board on iHub.

Paradoxically, BOCX is not one of the scammiest of biotech scams—on the scam-o-meter, it ranks well below such companies as HEB, CVM, and the latest member of this club: GVPB.