Stock Detective
Stinky Stocks
August 16, 1999
Sponsored by WallStreet Guru
Thanks to the Stock Detective's vigilant readers and a bevy of stock promoters, we're flush with tips about stocks that most people should think twice about before investing. All them may not warrant full Stinky Stock status, although we're sure a few inevitably will come from this list. Until they reach that benchmark, Stock Detective wants to warn readers about stocks that should have you seeing "red." What sets them apart? Take your pick: volatility, high volume, wild price swings, outrageous claims, a stack of vacuous press releases, or maybe a share price that doesn't seem to add up from the sum of the company's parts.
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BrowseSafe.com, Inc. (OTC BB: PGPG) BrowseSafe.com claims to have the most effective Internet policing software available so parents can control what their children see online. The company went public in May after reversing itself into the shell of Motioncast Television Corp. of America (OTC BB: MCTV)
BrowseSafe.com has 16 million shares outstanding, including 14 million restricted shares issued as part of the acquisition and 2 million shares in the float.
Neither the company's website, nor its paid promoter (RedHot Stocks was paid $4,700 to promote the company, plus its officers, employees and their family members may own BrowseSafe.com shares) give a hint at how much of this product has actually been sold or even ordered. Instead, there are the usual allusions to the depth and breadth of the potential market ("PlanetGood could represent an incremental revenue opportunity of more than $100 million per year for the US ISP community says BrowseSafe President" and " BrowseSafe.com is pleased to announce that a distribution agreement has been signed with Riverside Distributors, one of the world's largest distributors of products into the Christian Retail Market. This market is estimated to be in excess of $3,000,000,000 in the US alone").
The company's press releases also do a lot of name-dropping but, again, no evidence of cold cash contracts.
BrowseSafe.com's product is based on ratings of different web pages by its staff. So far, 150 million pages have been reviewed, just a fraction of what's available online. It is not clear how BroweSafe.com plans to catch up with the volume of pages already available, keep them updated accurately or keep pace with the growing volume of web pages.
Besides lacking any substantive reason to invest in this company, Browsesafe.com's social agenda might also give investors pause. In one breath it decries government censorship, then offers up its own standards in the next.
"?BrowseSafe carefully reviews Web sites for content. Then each Web site is classified into a combination of more than 30 categories, including alcohol, gambling, profanity, violence, and more. These categories are pre-set to levels that reflect traditional American family values?"
It's not clear who has defined these "traditional American family values."
As always, tread lightly????????. The Stock Detective
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