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Technology Stocks : Turbodyne Technologies Inc. (TRBDF) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: oden67 who wrote (2315)	12/20/1998 6:30:00 PM
From: StockDung	Respond to of 3458

How a Typical Cyber-Scheme Works "Is anyone out there following Company X?" "I heard that Company X is about to make a major announcement. E-mail me or call this toll-free number to get an information package." "I spoke to Company X 's CEO who confirmed details of next month's big news. I've bought 10,000 shares. Look for share price to double in next month! Get it now!" "Big news is just around the corner. We hear from a friend who has visited Company X that is going to be even bigger than we thought. There's still time to get in." "Short sellers are in the market! Keep the faith... This will bounce back. The smart money will use the price as an opporitunity to buy more and dollar average." The original message in this hypothetical bulletin board "thread" might be posted by a company executive, public relations executive, market making brokerage firm or large, individual shareholder. Subsequent messages could be left by the same individual under an alias (or aliases) or by accomplices posing as unconnected outsiders. The goal would be to interest unwary investors, who then drive up the price of the stock through a surge in buying. The schemers stand to make substantial profits when they sell their cheap shares into the market. After the price collapses, talk of the company ceases and the schemers move on to hyping a new stock. Promotion of "exotic" scams. The manipulation of the stock of publicly-traded companies and misconduct by professionals are just two types of problems that state securities agencies have detected on commercial bulletin board services and on the Internet. In hundreds of other cases, messages have been posted promoting a wide variety of highly suspect, unregistered investment deals (e.g., wireless cable television "build-out" schemes, ostrich farming, and viatical settlements), as well as flat-out rip-offs (e.g., pyramid schemes, including a number of twists on "chain e-mail letters," and Ponzi scams). These so called "exotic" securities may pose a greater threat to consumers than other cyber-schemes, since out-and-out scams often appeal to individuals who do not feel sophisticated enough to speculate in stocks. The experience of state securities regulators is that "exotics" are often just as costly to burned investors, since many schemes involve minimum investments of $5,000 or more. Some of the investment fraud and abuse problems in cyberspace are indistinguishable from those that have been in circulation elsewhere for decades. But access to the online world represents an enormous advance in the ability of con artists to victimize the unwary. Even the fastest-talking boiler-room operator would be hard-pressed to make more than 150 "cold call" telemarketing pitches in one day, whereas the fast-buck swindler with access to Cyberspace can send e-mail to many thousands of individuals in less than an hour. The same con artist can then post a message that may be read in a matter of weeks by tens or even hundreds of thousands of individuals around the globe. As one veteran state securities agency official has observed about cyberspace: "In my 32 years of investigating fraud, this is by far the greatest money-making machine for scammers that I have ever seen."