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[Pimpwerx]

Got a wierd message today. No caller ID, which is rare. So it must be a wonky number. The message starts off with this girl assuming it's the wrong person. "Hi Steph". Um, my voice message intro says my name...and I sound like a guy with a deepish voice. How the hell can anyone get that confused.

Anyway, she claims that she lost Steph's number, but her friend "Randy" gave her this one. Anyway, she's calling b/c of the "hot stock trader guy" she's dating gave her another lead, and Steph was mad at her for not mentioning the last one. She mentions the previous incident, which apparently involved some company "MSI?" that increased from $1.50 to over $5. Wow, not a bad return. So the new tip has to do with some company TWRM or something like that. Go ahead and give her a call back. No return number given, and no caller ID. A fucking teaser that I assume she'll rope some suckers into.

Sounds like something out of Boiler Room, but worse. She paused a moment on the phone, but claimed to be eating. Sounded like she was scrolling through papers. Not sure how she would get my cell number since it's on the DNC list, and also unlisted AFAIK. Sounds really fake. I mean, WTF? And she claims to be up in NY still. I would *69 the number, but don't feel like appeasing an obvious fraud. But is this how it's done with real chop shops? They randomly call around fishing for leads and hoping to rope a sucker? I had to laugh b/c I would have picked up the call if I wasn't in class. Would have been an interesting conversation. I'm just curious to know if anyone else has had this happen recently. PEACE.

 

[DopeyFish]

i got something like that twice last week. no return number, no name. it's messed up.

 

[ghostface]

Not saying it not a scam or anything, but you do realise that "Steph" could stand for Stephane, a guy's name?

 

[Pimpwerx]

ghostface: Hehe, I really didn't think about that. Good point.

DopeyFish: Ah, so I'm not the only one. Sounds like a scam alright. I don't like unsolicited calls to me cell. That makes me nervous. PEACE.

 

[ChrisReid]

Gotta be a scam.

 

[Hitman]

Maybe they want people to beleive in this hot stock tip so the stock goes higher and higher for them.

 

[explodet]

Isn't it illegal - or at least very very bad form - to call cell phones to sell stuff? Because cell phones may be on limited minutes and you're paying money to hear them sell stuff?
I rememeber hearing something about that, but I'm not sure if that was truth or just rumor.

 

[Brannon]

I kept getting calls from a "Vivian Cordova" who has a "really important message concerning me", and that I must "get in contact immediately at number ###...". This got annoying so I did call back. I didn't even have to say anything; they looked at my number, started yelling expletives and apologized profusely and hung up.

DSN>>>DNC, especially when it's in the office.

 

[distantmantra]

This sounds like what happened to you.

"Oregon hit by ‘pump and dump’ stock scam"
http://news.statesmanjournal.com/article.cfm?i=85291

 

[Pimpwerx]

distantmantra: Thanks for the link. That's exactly it. Old boyfriend, stock tips on a legit stock and so on. The funny thing was she didn't leave a number, and the callerID showed up blank. I would have called back, just for shits and giggles. PEACE.

 

[DMczaf]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040820/ap_on_bi_ge/voicemail_stock_scam

WASHINGTON - Investors are being told to be wary if they receive a friendly sounding voicemail from a female stranger offering a hot stock tip

It could be a new investor scam that hundreds of people have complained about recently.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (news - web sites) issued an investor alert on Friday, warning of the so-called "wrong-number" stock touts, which have reached home answering machines across the country.

The "breezy, intimate" voice mails feature a female claiming to have mistakenly dialed a girlfriend to pass on insider information from "that hot stock exchange guy I'm dating." She says the stock price of a certain small company is about to shoot up.

 

[Vennt]

The SEC may well issue an alert, but thats all they're likely to do. It's scary how many of these stock scams are on the go and many of the criminals running them are stealing millions & millions seemingly without risk. The SEC is an overworked toothless tiger, according to one ex-SEC employee, and off-shore shell games means some of them may never pay for their crimes:

"The bad news is that it seems to me that it is more likely the fraudster in Florida will be killed by lightening then be hauled into court on a contempt hearing and sent to jail. In the six years I was at the SEC in Miami, it happened once. I did the case, and the fraudster did a week or so in the can for failing to account for the proceeds of the fraud. Investors got no money back anyway, so the whole effort ended up being an exercise in futility. But at least the guy had to assume the position in jail. And the reality was, that the whole time I was going to court hearing after court hearing in an effort to get this guy held in contempt, management at the Commission thought I was wasting time. They wanted me to move another case, so the Commission could report to Congress another statistic for the year (called: “a stat”) to make it look like we’d brought another successful anti-fraud civil action.

...

With civil remedies being as they are, the punishment and deterrence that comes from collecting the fraudster’s ill-gotten money just is not there. The money is usually hidden or gone, or so the fraudster claims, and as far as money being returned to defrauded investors, the present system is not getting the job done.

From Gary Goodenow Presents Reality At The SEC

I was reading up on one of these scams earlier today, the amount of detail in the report was amazing, and the lengths the fraudsters go to is frighting.

See USPennyStocks.com - Anatomy of a stock fraud for the full story of how one group of fraudsters made $40 Million in one day, and are still free & working their scam.