A Breakthrough in Targeted Innovation
Conquering Innovation Fatigue: Now at Amazon!
Conquering Innovation Fatigue is a new book on strategy and innovation published by John Wiley & Sons. Its authors, Jeff Lindsay, Cheryl Perkins, and Mukund Karanjikar, bring decades of experience and diverse backgrounds together to reveal new insights and strategies based on understanding the personal side of innovation. See what leading experts in business and innovation say about the book.
Supporting blog: InnovationFatigue.com
My RSS Feeds
Beware Junk Mail Promotions of A Single Stock: Almost Always a Scam
I am amazed at the audacity of some crooks who operate penny-stock scams. A common approach is to buy a bunch of a small stock such as a penny stock or other OTC stocks, then mail out thousands of glitzy multi-page brochures claiming that this stock will make investors rich if they buy now. There must be enough stupid investors out there that this approach works, causing a big spike in the price of the stock - after which the price inevitably plummets as the scammers dump their large position. Almost every such brochure I've seen shows the same pattern: a large increase in stock price around the time of the promotion, followed by a rapid plummet. People are buying up the stock at, say, $2 a share, and five days later they have lost 50% of their investment.
The most recent scam is one pushing HPRD.ob, the OTC stock for Health Care Providers Direct . The colofrul 16-page brochure explains that this is a huge opportunity to get into the ideal stock that will make investors rich. Thy claim that this little company has developed a big portfolio of advanced technologies in health care, with dozens of patents. These technologies include numerous tests that will allow doctors to diagnos patients quickly and easily. They show some of the se amazing products, such as the Uni-Gold HIV test. What they don't tell you is that HPRD doesn't own any of these tests. The Uni-Gold HIV test kit is made by Trinity Biotech, not HPRD. Healthcare Products Direct is a tiny little company that, like any little online shop you or I could set up, simply sells other people's products. The brochure is part of a scam.
The deceptive brochure is allegedly from Jarrett Wollstein of the Intelligent Investor Report. If it's really from that company, then shame on them.
The stock for HPRD.ob, as expected, shows a dramatic decline in the past couple of days. WIth a market cap less than 50 million, it's easy to drive the share price up by getting a handful of stupid investors to buy a lot, just in time for you to sell. Somebody lost a lot of money.
Don't ever believe the free tips you get in junk mail or email. I guess you could consider shorting those stocks, but that's more like gambling and not investing (I think there is a difference!).