FBN Associates in WSJ Interactive
Here's a Y2K Stock That Seems
Too Good to Be True -- And Is
By JASON ANDERS
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL INTERACTIVE EDITION
FBN Associates really does appear to be, as its promoters claim, the
"perfect company." It has a cutting-edge "Y2K" product to fix the dreaded
millennium bug threatening computers. Its Web site features strong
endorsements from financial analysts. And, the company seems to have
legions of loyal stockholders.
It also appears to be one of the
longest-running jokes on the Silicon
Investor Web site's (www.techstocks.com)
on-line message boards.
FBN Associates -- the FBN stands for "Fly By Night" -- was fabricated
by five regulars on Silicon Investor who wanted to have a little fun and
prove a point: No matter how ludicrous hype becomes, there are some
people who will believe. There is nothing to FBN other than a
tongue-in-cheek "corporate" Web site (www.magneticdiary.com/fbn), and
a lot of on-line chatter.
Investors are especially gullible amid the
mania for so-called Y2K stocks, say those
who organized the prank. They say they didn't
solicit -- or receive -- any money from their
gag.
"I honestly cannot believe that people are still
buying into this, but they are," says Janice
Shell, an art historian in Milan who served as
"investor relations manager" for the phony
company. She says she continues to receive
requests for information from people intrigued
by what they have read about FBN on the Net. "Technology is moving so
quickly these days that people are prepared to believe all kinds of nutty
stuff."
And nutty it is. FBN Associates -- identified as "an application
development, outsourcing, and integration services firm headquartered in
Sedona, Ariz." -- says its technology can fix computer glitches that
threaten to render useless everything from automatic teller machines to
toasters in the year 2000. One of its phony products, the EZSounder
2000, is a modified Timex watch that can detect the so-called millennium
bugs just by being worn near faulty computers.
Terry Dennis, a retired software developer who has worked on year 2000
solutions, introduced the idea for FBN on a Silicon Investor message
board last year. Mr. Dennis and a few others began exchanging messages
about their fake company, often based on hype they had seen on message
boards for real Y2K companies. Earlier this year, members of the group
-- who have never met face to face -- began making plans to try out their
inside joke on others to see just how many people could be drawn in by a
company that had a lot of promotion, and little else.
Kevin Watson, a database designer and FBN "insider," started a Silicon
Investor message board dedicated exclusively to FBN, appropriately, on
April 1, announcing the company's initial public offering and referring
potential investors to a slick FBN Web site. A handful of Silicon Investor
regulars were in on the joke, and began hyping the stock. Mr. Dennis,
posing as FBN's CEO, answered questions on the message board, and
hinted about big things on the horizon.
It wasn't long before excited investors were
clamoring to get in. "My broker can't find the
stock symbol. Help! How can I buy this?"
wrote one participant.
There were others who saw through FBN's
marketing hype, but apparently didn't get the
joke. "This has scam written all over it," warned one participant. "I'm
starting to smell hype big time," wrote another, after FBN said its products
had been endorsed by the pope.
Some of the pranksters drew fire after criticizing real Y2K companies on
other message boards. Some of the regulars on those boards apparently
believed the gag, and "exposed" the critics as employees for the
competition.
FBN's flagship product, NeuralNet 2000, drew a lot of attention on the
message board. It is a card that reportedly fits into any computer
anywhere in the world, and detects potential software problems using
technology engineered by TechniClone Inc.
TechniClone Inc. was an April Fool's joke passed around Silicon Investor
in 1997 by Jeffrey Mitchell -- another person in on the FBN Associates
gag. Mr. Mitchell, who takes the persona of FBN's vice president of
research and development, says it was an accident that he selected the
name TechniClone, which is used by a real company, Techniclone Corp.,
a small biotechnology company based in Tustin, Calif.
The FBN Associates Web site was a big selling point for the prank, the
group agrees. It was created by Bill Ulrich, a Web designer in San Rafael,
Calif. "I got involved for two reasons," he says. "First, because there are a
lot of Y2K companies out there that are questionable. And second,
because it was just a lot of fun."
Mr. Ulrich estimates he spent about a week
and a half designing the Web site, which he
has added to his design portfolio to show to
future clients. He admits that he cut a few
corners, though, and says designing a similar
site for a real company could take months.
"Still, it goes to show that if you put up
something glossy, people will believe it
without even reading it," he says.
The Web site details the company's products,
and lists recent press releases on pages
strikingly similar to those used on Yahoo's popular investor Web site
(quote.yahoo.com), including one headlined "FBN Named by Leading
Financial Data Developer as Probable Recipient of $7.2 Million Contract."
The site also lists job openings, touting employee perks at FBN's
headquarters, including an Olympic-sized pool and full gymnasium.
A spokeswoman for Silicon Investor says there have been complaints
about FBN, but only from users angry that the FBN message board has
appeared on Silicon Investor's "hot subjects" list -- a list of message
boards that have had the most activity in recent days.
"They complain that their penny stock that they think is great can't make
the list, but a fake company does," says Jill McKinney, Silicon Investor's
Webmaster. She says users can discuss almost anything they want on
message boards, and says it's clear that FBN was a joke that didn't do
any harm.
"Basically we did what we had been criticizing other people for," says Mr.
Mitchell. "The difference is we were playing around with a fake company,
but other people were scamming people out of real money."
The group is already looking forward to April 1, 1999.
"I've been sitting here the past week wondering how are we going to top
this," says Mr. Ulrich, the Web designer. "I don't have any ideas yet, but
I'm sure we'll come up with something."
Write to Jason Anders at: jason.anders@news.wsj.com |
