Second Installment:
Rumor Central
The 17 million to 18 million Americans who log on to the Internet at least
once a week can summon up accurate and highly detailed financial
information. For example, the Securities and Exchange Commission's
Edgar site gives you access to millions of pages of filings by public
companies. (For other solid sources, see www.$$$.com, Oct.)
But the Internet has also replaced the cocktail party as the prime source
of hot stock tips. When you got a tip at a party, at least you knew who
was whispering in your ear--and what they'd been drinking. On the
Internet, it can be hard to tell whether you're getting a recommendation
from a broker, a short seller or an antisocial 20-year-old. "People tend to
think that the bad people on the Web are child pornographers, but there
are others out there, too," says Don Ulsch, senior vice-president at
O'Reilly Online Research Group. "The Internet allows virtually anyone to
create a Web site, and there is going to be the criminal element that uses
the Internet to rob you blind. That's the dark side of the Web."
Lisa Keefe, a business editor in Chicago, brushed the dark side when she
received e-mail from somebody who identified himself as Bob Williams.
"He jumps into this message," says Keefe, "as if we were familiar
business partners--no introduction or identification as to his position with
the company--saying he's heard that the Chancellor Group is reporting
greatly increased second-quarter earnings and plans a stock split at the
end of the month. He writes, 'Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.
What do you think?'"
Here's what we know: The Chancellor Group's 1995 annual report on
file with the SEC indicated it had interests in a slew of risky
businesses--oil and gas fields in Kentucky, cable-television licenses and
gold mines in Australia, timber in Fiji--but no salaried employees. One of
the company's executives, David Yeaman, paid a $3,000 civil fine in
1994 to settle a complaint brought by the New Jersey Bureau of
Securities that he was selling unregistered securities in that state. Yeaman
resigned from the company in July 1995 but retained a 20% ownership at
that time.
And who is Bob Williams, who sent the chatty post to Keefe (and many
other people as well)? He left a telephone number, but most of the time
when we called, his voice mailbox was too full to take a message. When
we did succeed in leaving a message, the phone answering machine
identified the firm as "Internet Marketing." Our calls weren't returned. |
