An interesting article on stock scam spam
Dec. 1st, 2006 09:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thewaynehttp://blog.wired.com/business/2006/11/when_youre_an_o.html
Spammers as scammers
Topic: Stocks,Web/Tech
Wexe When you're an over-the-counter stock not traded on the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq, there's a presumption among many that your business isn't on the up and up.
That perception is doubly difficult to overcome when you're one of the dozens of penny stocks being touted in spam messages that regularly get blasted across the globe.
Just ask executives at Vemics, a River Edge, NJ-based provider of video conferencing and data services. Since March, it has been the subject of more emails than they can count, and each wave draws a rash of calls to the company from outraged recipients who want to know why their inboxes are littered with spam claiming Vemics is the next big thing.
"We have no clue who is dong this, and we have tried to figure it out," says Craig Stout, the company's chief operating officer. "We just hit a dead end at every turn."
Vemics is by no means alone. Other companies being targeted include Bralorne Mining, Advanced Powerline Technologies and West Excelsior Enterprises. "Grab BLMN first thing Tuesday morning and turn some serious profits," a spam message that circulated this week raved about Bralorne Mining. "Buy it on Tuesday, become rich on Friday."
Stout speculates that the person or people responsible buy the stock, send the mass emails and then wait for the shares to rise so they can be sold at a tidy profit. Once the share price goes back down, the cycle starts all over again.
I'm wondering about the forensic remedies available to companies like Vemics. Is it really impossible to track these spammers down? If you have more info about these scams, please email me at epicenter@mindspring.com.
Spammers as scammers
Topic: Stocks,Web/Tech
Wexe When you're an over-the-counter stock not traded on the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq, there's a presumption among many that your business isn't on the up and up.
That perception is doubly difficult to overcome when you're one of the dozens of penny stocks being touted in spam messages that regularly get blasted across the globe.
Just ask executives at Vemics, a River Edge, NJ-based provider of video conferencing and data services. Since March, it has been the subject of more emails than they can count, and each wave draws a rash of calls to the company from outraged recipients who want to know why their inboxes are littered with spam claiming Vemics is the next big thing.
"We have no clue who is dong this, and we have tried to figure it out," says Craig Stout, the company's chief operating officer. "We just hit a dead end at every turn."
Vemics is by no means alone. Other companies being targeted include Bralorne Mining, Advanced Powerline Technologies and West Excelsior Enterprises. "Grab BLMN first thing Tuesday morning and turn some serious profits," a spam message that circulated this week raved about Bralorne Mining. "Buy it on Tuesday, become rich on Friday."
Stout speculates that the person or people responsible buy the stock, send the mass emails and then wait for the shares to rise so they can be sold at a tidy profit. Once the share price goes back down, the cycle starts all over again.
I'm wondering about the forensic remedies available to companies like Vemics. Is it really impossible to track these spammers down? If you have more info about these scams, please email me at epicenter@mindspring.com.
