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Microcap & Penny Stocks : Tonto and Janice Teach Investing -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Anaxagoras who wrote (194)	4/27/1999 5:19:00 PM
From: Razorbak	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 302

heh heh. Sarcasm. I like that. ;^P

To: Anaxagoras who wrote (194)	4/27/1999 6:27:00 PM
From: Ellen	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 302

Don't be silly. Posting that news is extremely relevant to this thread. Looks like CNET picked it up - from Bloomberg: CNET News.com - Business Wire sues press release posers news.com Business Wire sues press release posers By Bloomberg News Special to CNET News.com April 27, 1999, 12:00 p.m. PT SAN FRANCISCO--Business Wire, a privately held service that distributes more than 1,000 press releases a day, sued three people who it believes put a phony announcement out over the wire to publicize a fictitious Internet investment opportunity. San Francisco-based Business Wire said it filed the federal suit yesterday, accusing Jeffrey Mitchell, William Ulrich, and Janice Shell of giving the service a fraudulent press release. The release announced that a company named WebNode had won an exclusive government contract to raise funds for the development of faster, more powerful Internet technology. WebNode's Web site acknowledges the release was a prank: "Fact: Business Wire received payment and ran the article. Fact: Business Wire later pulled the story (whilst keeping our payment--a minor annoyance, but those are the breaks). Fact: We properly, plainly, and clearly noted, on April 2, that the WebNode idea was an April Fool's prank." But Business Wire distributed the release to newspapers, online services, and trade publications worldwide April 1 before discovering that the government contract didn't exist. Nearly 2,000 people--most of them investors--responded to the news by supplying WebNode with personal information about themselves. Do you want to know more? Read related news View story in The Big Picture Go to Message Boards Search News.com "It was a phony press release about a totally make-believe company, and it went totally beyond the bounds of an April Fool's joke," said Business Wire spokeswoman Cathy Baron Tamraz. "We believe it was a malicious attempt to mislead and caused significant damage to Business Wire's reputation." Though the release was immediately pulled from Business Wire's Web site, it was posted on WebNode's Web site along with Business Wire's trademark. Mitchell, Ulrich, and Shell were able to distribute the release through Business Wire because they had become paid members of the service the same day, Tamraz said. Mitchell, a Westport, Connecticut-based software developer, said he met Shell and Ulrich over the Internet. Mitchell; Shell, an art historian in Milan, Italy; and Ulrich, a San Francisco-based Web site developer, share a common interest in stocks and decided to poke a little fun at investors, he said. "The intent was to show how easy it is to fool people into thinking something is legitimate, I guess," Mitchell said in a telephone interview today. "It was a commentary on this Internet mania, where everyone will buy anything with a '.com' after it. We thought what better way to show that than by selling the actual Internet itself." The suit accuses Mitchell, Ulrich, and Shell of violating federal and state trademark laws and seeks unspecified damages and injunctive relief. It comes just two weeks after Bloomberg, the closely held parent of Bloomberg News, sued five people in connection with a phony Internet posting announcing the takeover of PairGain Technologies in Tustin, California. WebNode describes itself as a newly created subsidiary of BZE International, which has North American headquarters in Safety Harbor, Florida. There is no telephone listing for either BZE International or its public relations spokesman, Jim Chefftell, in Westport, Connecticut. Copyright 1999, Bloomberg L.P. All Rights Reserved. Related news stories € Short Take: SEC sues PairGain hoax suspect April 22, 1999 € Arrest made in Bloomberg story hoax April 15, 1999 € Short Take: Bloomberg sues over false report April 13, 1999