Promoters have long been paid by companies to promote shares of their company which are intrinsically worthless. Direct mailing and cold calling techniques are still used to promote these companies. Promoters, however, have found a new place to market their companies:

• Email. The use of junk email (also called spamming) has given the promoter an easy vehicle through which to promote an otherwise worthless stock. The use of email permits the promoter to contact the investor directly and personalizing his/her messages at a greater rate than previously used methods such as cold calling.

• Online Investment Newsletters. The growth of the internet has spawned legitimate and illegitimate online investment newsletters. These newsletters purport to offer free impartial advice under the guise of professional credentials. In fact many online investment newsletters are written by promoters paid by the very companies which the promoter promotes. The information is not unbiased but meant to fool the innocent investor in thinking that the advice is informative and independent.

  The promoter makes his/her money by getting investors to purchase shares of worthless companies at inflated prices. These shares are sold by the promoters and company insiders at a profit to these innocent investors. After buying these shares at inflated prices, these innocent investors find the price of their shares suddenly fall resulting in a huge loss.

• Bulletin Boards. The use of Bulletin Boards, chat services, newsgroups and usenets are utilized by promoters, insiders and large shareholders of worthless companies to share seemingly unbiased information with users of these sites. The scam involves a number of individuals or even one individual using aliases to plant information about a company to lures the unsuspecting investor to buy a stock Sample messages on a Bulletin Board might run along these lines:

  Person A: " I just heard about a new company that a friend heard about. Had a name like Somtex."

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