Friday, January 28, 2011

an investor guide to keeping clear of penny stock scams

By Irene Ruiz


If you want to invest in stocks, you need to make sure that you are provided with reliable and updated information. However, the information regarding the "penny stocks" or the affordable stocks offered by "micro-capital" groups are not readily available. Since these groups are not required to provide data regarding their finances, investors would find it hard to access updated details about the products and services of a company issuing penny stocks.

This terrible lack of information paves way for fraudsters to spread out false facts and rip off clueless investors. Consequently, they profit while investors lose out. But, there are ways to identify penny stock scams and here are five of them:

Spam is Scam. Sending junk email or spam is one of the common ways used by fraudsters to spread fake information. This method lets them reach multiple investors and it can be done quickly and cheaply. It is also an easy way to target thousands of potential clients online.

Promo Plays. Penny stock companies would usually employ third party firms to make promotional campaigns aimed at increasing their stocks exposure. These include advertising in television, radio and online shows. The junk files that you receive usually come from these promoters who are paid to advertise penny stock campaigns. Even if there is a law requiring them to reveal the sponsor, a lot of fraudsters do not comply or just make people believe that they have a good financial donor.

Heating it up with Cold Calls. Cold calling is one of the tactics of dishonest stockbrokers. In most cases, there is a sales force tasked to cold call as many investors as possible in a day. These people push investors to deposit their cash for "house stocks", or stocks which the firm markets, acquires or keeps in its inventory. But the only purpose of this tactic is to drive up the stock prices.

Oh Sorry, Wrong Number. Another scam tactic is the "misdialed" call. Usually, you would get a call from someone leaving a great investment advice for his friend. The caller would seem unaware that he dialed the wrong number, but in reality, this is intended. Some people are employed specifically to make misdialed calls to a number of people from a phone listing.

PR Counts! Another clever ploy utilized by fraudsters is publishing press releases with exaggerated claims and building fabricated details about their sales, assets, market offerings, and projected revenues. These are unreliable news but are published in legitimate news portals and financial sites. An example is the pump and dump, which aggressively pushes readers to acquire penny stocks, or to sell them before prices drop down.

Scammers might have a few more tricks up their sleeves but watch out for these five. And always remember, the hawkers will do anything to get you to invest. They would even claim to have insider information. However, all of these are just ploys to get you to part with your hard earned cash. When they have gathered enough sales from their shares, the stock prices would deflate, leaving investors like you to crash and burn.




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