I've gotten "tips" on a voice mail-to-email account.
http://www.nydailynews.com/business/story/223757p-192250c.html
Dialing up a stock scam
If you've heard from Debbie, tell us your story. We want to hear from
you. Call us at (212) 210-1630 or E-mail us at
dduna...@edit.nydailynews.com
BY DANIEL DUNAIEF
DAILY NEWS BUSINESS WRITER
When Debbie calls "by mistake" with an inside tip on a stock, don't
buy it.
Report it to the Securities and Exchange Commission, which warned
investors yesterday about a phone scam that's sweeping the country.
The SEC has gotten hundreds of complaints from people who have been
targets of this new scam — and hundreds, even thousands, more may have
bought into it. Here's how it works: an innocent-sounding young woman
named Debbie leaves a message on your answering machine by mistake for
her friend Tracy that has a tip from her "hot stock exchange guy."
"This new company is making some big news announcement this week,"
Debbie says, as she's heard munching casually on her lunch. "It's 50
cents now and it's going up to, like $5 or $6 bucks this week, so get
as much as you can."
Debbie has recommended buying shares of Power3 Medical Products,
Innovative Food Holdings, and Absolute Health and Fitness, among
others, according to people who have received these calls.
These calls may have helped shares of Power3 surge to $6.90 in recent
weeks from under 50 cents. At the same time, trading volume has
skyrocketed to more than two million shares from a couple hundred.
Shares of Power3, which researches products to detect and screen
diseases, fell from that high recently, and closed yesterday down 24%
to $2.65. Still, the phone scam may have driven its shares to
unrealistic highs. Power3 did not return calls for comment.
The call "sounds believable, like maybe you got this in error," said
John Nester, a spokesman for the SEC. "If anyone lets his guard down,
he could become a victim." Indeed, Aimee Bell, of Boca Raton, Fla.,
received the message from Debbie on her cell phone earlier this week —
and was initially enticed.
"She's an excellent actress," Bell said of her mystery caller. "It did
have its tempting moments. I could use a new car."
Still, Bell, who drives a 1991 Nissan, said something didn't ring true
about the message.
"I started to listen closer and it was just too much information,"
said Bell, 36, who sells insurance. "It can't be right."
While the SEC didn't have any estimate of how many people have been
taken in by the scam, they say that they've launched an investigation.
"The enforcement division will be looking at the records of everyone
trading [in those stocks]," said Nester. "We'll be comparing phone
records and trading patterns."
Bell said she reported the phone call to the SEC, because she didn't
want others to be taken in by the scam.
"You go to work every day to make ends meet," she said. "If something
like this happens, it could devastate someone."
She cautions that "Nothing's that easy in life."
