A Basher’s Confession
By Giando Argentina
Published by OTCNN.com
11/02/2000 10:20 AM EST
November 1, 2000 was a day that many OTCBB investors were waiting for, the final proof that there is a job description of “Paid Basher.” It came as a shock to many and finally after years of speculation a confession appeared. If you have not yet seen the post it simply means you we not reading message boards yesterday. After being posted at 11:51 Eastern Time, it ended up being the topic of conversation on a large portion of Raging Bull message boards, then filtering out to other online communities.
Any investor who frequents message boards and participates in the OTCBB market is familiar with the paid basher myth. Now that the proof has possibly surfaced, a confession by a basher actually employed by a bashing company, who decided for whatever reason to come clean and expose the whole deplorable lifestyle of a basher, will it change the way we invest or even treat our fellow posters on message boards?
Here are some excerpts from this now famous post: “Today I want to come clean about something I feel very badly about. I cannot undo some of the things I have done, but hopefully this message will prevent other such occurrences in the future.”
He goes on to explain: “Yes, it is true. Today is my last day at this company; I’m moving on to a new job. But before I go, I want to explain a few things because this just isn’t right and I won’t feel good about myself until I expose this sham. It’s hurt too many people and I don’t want it on my conscience anymore. I can no longer live with a lie.”
Incredible right? Well there’s much more: “I work for a company called Franklin, Andrews, Kramer & Edelstein in Stamford, CT. Basically, it’s a Boiler Room much like the one in the movie of the same name. The idea behind my group is to bash the price of a company’s stock down low enough to where the group of investors who retained our company’s services can buy the stock really cheap and perhaps even take it over all together.”
He also explains the salary and bonus plan, although it is unclear whether the company offers benefits such as health insurance and 401(k) as well: “I was paid a base wage of $12 an hour for my services. I was given a $1 bonus for every post over 100 per day as well as a monthly bonus of $100 for every penny the stock had dropped from the previous month. I was also paid a bonus for bashing on weekends. While this may not sound like much, I made a decent, though dishonorable, paycheck.”
In his closing he does seem to have some genuine remorse. Another excerpt: “I have to go now, I’m too broken up to continue. I hope this confession can make up for my sordid deeds; I would urge everyone who reads this to copy and repost it as many times as you can. Only by shining the light of truth can we drive these rats back into the darkness from whence they came. Believe me, they don’t want publicity.”
To read the original post in its entirety before the many cut and paste jobs: ragingbull.altavista.com.
And please read all the way to the bottom, past where you may think the post ends.
The post was actually a joke, and only by reading all the way to the bottom could the reader notice the “and if you believe this…lol.” In the haste to cut and paste the post the last line was lost. A few words with the author of the post, online alias, firebird_1965:
Giando: The paid basher post you authored is spreading through the message boards as if it were a great vindication for the believers of paid bashing as a profession, what was your motive behind writing it?
Steve: Actually, to be honest, it’s as simple as I was getting bored - nothing more. Our room was getting stale and sinking into a rut of childish name-calling. That’s no fun, and not much of a challenge. It was Halloween and I thought this might be a good way to liven things up and change the direction of the conversation. People really want to believe there are paid bashers lurking just off screen, so like any good performer, I gave the people what they wanted. The really fun part is that although the motivation behind the post is quite simple, people would rather read something sinister into it.
Giando: Why do you feel investors are so ready and willing to believe that there is a group of people that make a living bashing stocks?
Steve: They don’t want to face reality. Everyone wants to think they’ve caught lightning in a bottle, that they’ve found the next Microsoft, the next Oracle, etc. To them, it makes more sense that there must be some deep, dark conspiracy out there intent on destroying some obscure penny stock company that 99.99 percent of America has never heard of.
That’s easier to take than the truth – that is, that penny stocks are at best a big risk and perhaps they picked the wrong horse. No one wants to be wrong. So rather than admit a mistake, they’d rather believe in some unseen boogeyman, which is okay by me – it makes things like “Confession of a Paid Basher” that much easier to pull off.
Giando: The original post contained a line far at the bottom indicating it was a joke, in the multitude of cut and pastes that line was lost, what lesson do you think can be learned from this?
Steve: Read EVERYTHING and DON’T believe everything you read. There’s a simple saying that I live by that has always served me well, “If it sounds to good to be true, it probably is.” Anyone who invests in penny stocks or who reads stock message boards should heed that saying every moment of the day. Because if you don’t, you’ll fall prey to an equally valid adage, “There’s a sucker born every minute…” I’m certainly amused, but also a little dismayed at how few people actually read the post. I left plenty of clues throughout that even someone who had never visited our board should have picked up on. Take the name of the bashing company, for example. The name Franklin, Andrews, Kramer and Edelstein form the acronym FAKE. That, in and of itself, should have been a dead give away whether you saw the line at the bottom of the original or not. I did put several carriage returns after the signature line before the “and if you believe this…” close. I made sure each carriage return was marked with a period (which is not normally found at the end of a post) to entice people to look further down. Once it was cut and pasted, few bothered to include that line, which I thought might happen, but even the people on my own message board often failed to read beyond the apparent end, ignoring the line of periods that mysteriously beckoned them on. In a way, that’s funny. But it’s also sad because it shows people aren’t that careful and would rather believe the easy than think about it for a second.
Giando: Some appreciated the humor while many more obviously felt it was a true confession of a paid basher, do you feel you accomplished your goal?
Steve: Absolutely. I never dreamed it would get that far so quick, so that shows you the awesome power of the Internet. People have written how this post will become an Internet legend and how it was the funniest thing they’ve ever read. Hey, that’s pretty flattering, I must admit. I expected the furor to last about an hour then fade away. I’m more than a little surprised and shocked it has gone this far. However, I have gotten several e-mails from people congratulating me on my “courage” and asking me to help them identify and root out the bashers on their boards. To be honest, when I read these e-mails, I don’t know whether to laugh at the sheer naiveté or cringe at the absolute gullibility of people. Let me say that I am not a basher. My goal in any post is to stir up discussion and ignite passion. I am not here to cheat people or manipulate stock. In fact, I have never owned any stock of the company discussed on that message board. I consider myself more like the “bad guy” in professional wrestling. I’m someone the crowd can boo and hiss. And like the bad guy in professional wrestling, I do things in an over-the-top manner. I’m there to entertain, pure and simple. What makes that board and several others fun is that people take what they read there way too seriously and without a proper framework of objectivity.
Your story about the “cult-like” atmosphere of many boards is absolutely correct. These message board posters so want to believe their stock is literally “going to the moon” once the next press release comes out that they set themselves up for something like this. They would rather believe that sinister forces are out to manipulate their stock for some evil purpose than to stop and realize that they are the ones being manipulated – not by some dastardly boiler room full of bashers, but by someone who is having a little fun at the expense of their overripe zeal.
To those who got the joke and appreciated it, I congratulate you on your common sense and your sense of humor. To those who believed it, well… I think I’ve said enough.
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