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Microcap & Penny Stocks : PanAmerican BanCorp (PABN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Scottey who wrote (29826)	3/24/1999 11:17:00 PM
From: ERRAFF	Respond to of 43774

OT Start talking to your twin and it will be!

To: Scottey who wrote (29826)	3/24/1999 11:17:00 PM
From: alan holman	Respond to of 43774

Technology News Online Scammers Stay Ahead Of Securities Regulators (03/24/99, 10:23 a.m. ET) By Mary Mosquera, TechWeb WASHINGTON, D.C.-- With online investment fraud accelerating, securities regulators are scrambling to make better use of the Internet to protect consumers, the enforcement director of the Securities and Exchange Commission said Tuesday. Online banner advertising by securities regulators, links to regulators' consumer information on sites of financial forums, self-policing by private industry, and putting the registry of securities retailers online were among the proposals suggested to lawmakers by the SEC, North American Securities Administrators Association, and the Pennsylvania Securities Commission. The Senate Government Affairs Committee has held two days of hearings on securities fraud over the Internet and what to do about it. About 37 percent of individual trading is done online, the SEC said. Microcap stock frauds are very popular among online scammers. They are just another "get rich quick" scheme, said Richard Walker, the SEC's enforcement director. Promoters pursue consumers with unsolicited e-mail with hot tips and opportunities to buy small stocks that are about to take off. Although states and the SEC are pursuing scammers, it is impossible to keep up with all of them, Walker said. The key is to make individual, small investors more savvy, encourage industry to regulate itself, and to make more consumer-protection information available online. A major problem is the ease with which traders disciplined by regulators in one state can set up shop in another or shift back into the industry as a promoter. "This is a pretty bad gene pool," Walker said. It would speed up national investigations of securities fraud if Congress legislated that the SEC could use state findings instead of starting from scratch. The single most important action now is if the Central Registration Depository, which contains information on all those who are registered or applied to register to sell securities to individual investors, were accessible online. Investors could immediately find out if stock sellers were legal, Walker said. Currently, consumers must call their state securities regulator and ask them to search the registry. The SEC is also examining day-trading firms, which encourage traders to buy and sell particular stocks during the day, often within minutes. Trades tend to be very short and quick in day trading to take advantage of the share swings throughout each day, and traders do not usually hold their position overnight. Only about 8,000 people are day-trading now, said Peter Hildreth, president of the North American Securities Administrators Association. Regulators are concerned that investors understand the risk involved and that they don't get manipulated by stock hype on sites that host financial forums. Securities rules may have to be tweaked to cover Internet day-trading so sites bear some responsibility to the customer, similar to brokers' suitability and know-your-customer rules, Hildreth said. Another proposal is for sites to put in pop-ups, such as "Do you really want to do this?" when a stock is really volatile, said Philip Rutledge, deputy chief counsel for the Pennsylvania Securities Commission. Regulators were also considering displaying on financial forum sites banners advertising the SEC or other securities regulators with links to their consumer-protection sites so investors have the opportunity to click for information before they trade.