Who Actually Buys Stocks Based On Strangers Text Messaging Them?

from the and-can-we-take-away-their-mobile-phones? dept

Federal regulators are apparently so concerned about pump-and-dump spammers moving to text messages, that they've sent out a warning telling people that if you receive a text message from a complete stranger with a stock tip... it's probably not legit. This should bring up one huge question: who actually needed the SEC to tell them this? Are there really people who believe that a random text message spam on their mobile phone is actually providing them with a hot stock tip?
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  • identicon
    Anon I Must, 13 Dec 2005 @ 4:07pm

    What about FAXes and SPAM?

    Well, the same thing could be said for junk FAXes and SPAM that push the stock of unknown companies. What idiot would by a stock based on this kind of input? And yet it must work because this crap keeps coming.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    OffBeatMammal (profile), 13 Dec 2005 @ 4:41pm

    the same morons...

    .... why buy stuff from junk faxes or (worse) junk emails .... and just encourage the pond life who send them the keep sending them.

    I report 100% of spam via Spamcop.net. Every PayPal, eBay, bank or Amazon phishing attempt I get I take the time to report through the MSN Toolbar anti-phishing bolt-on... but still the tide of crap keeps flowing.

    Where there is an idiot, there's someone going to take advantage of them. And it seems no amount of education or publicity will out-weight peoples greed and gullibility.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      MauveMan, 13 Dec 2005 @ 5:27pm

      Re: the same morons...

      These are largely the same morons who forward emails about little girls dying of cancer who just want a few more emails to be forwarded in their name so they can die happy...

      I tend not to be all that gentle to people who send these things to me - even though I usually know them.

      I usually send them a link to Snopes, a comment that verifying such a thing is a simple google search away, and didn't they think it was *just a smidgen* odd?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Marcus Aurelius, 13 Dec 2005 @ 7:38pm

      Re: the same morons...

      You should try
      www.cloudmark.comhttp://www.cloudmark.com/desktop/
      It's an awesome little program by a company I thought of applying to out in Silicon Valley. They're a small batch of smart entrepreneurs who came up with a viral solution for stopping spam. You join their community and get an Ebay-like rating based on the number of actual spams correctly blocked and every non-spam correctly unblocked. A high rating gives each user a higher weighting in their future determinations of an email being or not. It gives no weight to people who report everything incorrectly as spam. That means that as soon as a handful of people report something as spam, those emails never hit the rest of us. Spam email signatures get blocked in minutes once the number of users hits a certain number of thousands, which was hit at least a year ago.
      Give the 15-day trial a try. You install in minutes, see one or two pop-ups about how it works when you next open Outlook, and then you see a new folder called "Spam" fill up with new emails that you never have to read (unless Norton pops-up annoyingly that a virus email has been quarantined). Hardly any spam, and when you do your job to block or unblock, you help the process, and you get recognized with a higher rating. Gold star. Pat on the back. The people that buy or click on spam links should lined up and kicked in the balls. Don't even know what I would do if I met a spam sender in person.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 13 Dec 2005 @ 8:42pm

        Re: the same morons...

        Marcus Aurelius, I went to your website (cloudmark). I could not find anything for cell phones... let alone, text messaging. Am I missing something?

        link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        John, 13 Dec 2005 @ 10:51pm

        Re: the same morons...

        What does Cloudmark have to do with text messages? It's just yet another anti-spam email product, like pretty much all the others.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    PJ, 13 Dec 2005 @ 5:33pm

    stock tips

    Regardless, text messages could affect the price...

    Am I wrong?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      SRNissen, 13 Dec 2005 @ 5:51pm

      Re: stock tips

      Well it could, yes, in the same fashion that everything in the world can affect stock prices; if there is even one person out there who believes in his stock-tip message of the day and purchases a lot of stock in Zipnorf inc, that'll change the supply/demand and the other investors might be able to sell theirs for more.

      They might even be able to sell theirs to the gullible fool who believed the spam. But in a realistic, thorough and measurable manner? No, I don't believe it could affect the price like that, no.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Scott Owens (profile), 13 Dec 2005 @ 6:24pm

    People do it

    My bosses read the spam email and fax stock tips they get.. as well as any other spam they get.. they take all spam for exactly what it says and never question it.

    In fact.. I had to change their paypal password and keep it from them so that they stop falling for those paypal email scams.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Rafal Helszer, 13 Dec 2005 @ 7:23pm

      Re: People do it

      CAn you believe these people are in charge of somethinng?!

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 13 Dec 2005 @ 7:27pm

        Re: People do it

        "CAn you believe these people are in charge of somethinng?!"

        They hired him, and he is actually working. Go figure.
        If they hired someone who doesn't actually work... they probably wouldn't even know it, and still sign over a paycheck at the end of each week.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    googly_eyes, 13 Dec 2005 @ 6:27pm

    IIRC

    I think the premise is that the message looks like it is meant for someone else - an oooops I sent hot stock info to your number by mistake kinda thing.

    I agree, one would have to have the mental capacity of a box of rasin bran to act on such a "tip", but you know, greed can be a powerfull ally, for the dark side too...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Akuma, 13 Dec 2005 @ 6:36pm

    No Subject Given

    http://www.spamstocktracker.com/

    Awesome project tracking these spam stocks..

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    thecaptain, 14 Dec 2005 @ 5:32am

    No Subject Given

    Percentage of morons in the general population increasing! CEOs and scam artists dance in the streets! News at 11!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Amanda Rush, 14 Dec 2005 @ 7:07am

      Idiots And Spammers

      I think the fact that they have to warn people about this kind of thing is telling. Kind of like, we have a record number of idiots actually falling for this crap, so let's put out a warning. Anybody who spends their time fishing and cluttering up the 'Net with spam ought to be shot, and anyone who falls for it ought to be forced to do hard labor.

      link to this | view in chronology ]


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