Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Microcap & Penny Stocks : Zia Sun(zsun) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Francois Goelo who wrote (5087)	10/15/1999 4:02:00 PM
From: StockDung	Respond to of 10354

Advice on Fighting Telemarket Fraud By MARCY GORDON .c The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) - Consumers' best weapon in the fight against fraud: a telephone answering machine to screen calls from telemarketers pushing investment schemes, according to state securities regulators. Despite the mushrooming of securities fraud over the Internet, plenty of scams still use the older technique of making unsolicited calls to hook investors, they said Friday. The current ''hotbeds'' of telemarketing fraud operations include California, Florida, Canada and the Caribbean, the North American Securities Administrators Association said in a news release. The group represents securities regulators in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Canada and Mexico. As with all kinds of consumer fraud, the elderly are especially vulnerable because they are more likely to be at home when the phone rings and can be more susceptible to high-pressure telemarketing. ''The longer the telemarketer can keep the victim on the phone, the better likelihood of a sale,'' Anita O'Riordan, a telemarketing fraud consultant, was quoted as saying in the release. ''Anything to put distance and time between the fraudulent telemarketer and the targeted victim, the better.'' She suggested that people worried about their parents getting scammed give them an answering machine and make sure they use it to screen calls. Securities regulators have cracked down in recent years on so-called boiler rooms, operations in which dozens of salespeople are packed into a room, sitting at banks of telephones and making hundreds of unsolicited, ''cold'' calls a day to potential customers. Cold-calling is not illegal as such, but it can become a vehicle for telemarketing fraud. In the summer of 1998, for example, securities regulators in 29 states brought 106 enforcement actions against boiler room operations selling small-company stocks, foreign currencies, and investments in gourmet coffee shops and ostrich farms. The enforcement actions ranged from halt-sales orders to fines to criminal indictments. As a result of such crackdowns, regulators say big boiler rooms are being replaced by smaller ''rip and tear'' operations, with telemarketers working from home or from hotel rooms, using cell phones and temporary post office boxes to make it harder for authorities to catch them. Fraudulent telemarketers increasingly are using a variety of channels - Web sites, direct mail and radio and TV ''infomercials'' - to solicit customers, and eventually closing the sales over the phone, the regulators say. ''The hard sell is hard to do with a computer screen,'' said Bill McDonald, assistant commissioner for enforcement in California's Department of Corporations. The regulators' group advises consumers to hang up the phone on aggressive cold callers, beware of anyone promising a ''once-in-a-lifetime'' opportunity or ''guaranteed returns,'' demand information in writing, and call their state securities regulator to check out an investment and the person or company selling it. To locate a state regulator, look under ''Government'' in the white pages of the phone directory or call the North American Securities Administrators Association at 202-737-0900. AP-NY-10-15-99 1555EDT

To: Francois Goelo who wrote (5087)	10/15/1999 4:11:00 PM
From: StockDung	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10354

To: Francois Goelo (1338 ) From: Lonnie Friday, Oct 15 1999 11:30AM ET Reply # of 1344 "God, you SSB's have some problem understanding basics and only pick what suit you..." I would have no problem understanding the basics if this memo was quoting anyone other than Peter Brown of Cannacord. Speaking of understanding basics and picking what suits you- how can you ignore all of the irregularities that Flodyie and others have posted about ZSUN? 2 sets of different numbers would be enough to make any 'intelligent' investor flee with no looking back!