It’s a dangerous world out there for investors. Investment scams are rampant, and their promoters are relentless. When searching for investment knowledge on the Internet, it’s best to keep the following words in mind: “here there be dragons.” When it comes to regulation, the Internet is the Wild West. Shysters selling snake oil in the form of the latest investment scam lurk in every corner, waiting to separate you from your money. Further, many popular investments, while not unethical, just aren’t a very good deal. This collection of articles focuses on what to watch out for.


Short the Spammers 2 — GWSO - Time to review the performance of TUBR, our first Short-the-Spammers pick, and add a new short pick: GWSO. This company supposedly is devoted to curbing global warming, but in fact its business is just more hot air.

Short the Spammers - TUBR - Today we launch a new series of articles and a model portfolio entitled “Short the Spammers.” I have long claimed that investors would likely do far better selling short any stocks mentioned in unsolicited ads they receive than buying them. It’s time to put the theory to the test, and perhaps to have a little fun at spammers’ expense. Our first featured stock is Tubearoo (OTC:TUBR), which was touted in a full-color brochure we received this week.

Investment Scams: Anatomy of a Pump and Dump - As part of our ongoing series of articles about investment scams, we’d like to have a look at one of the oldest, yet most dangerous tricks in the book — the pump-and-dump. We’ll show you a real pump-and-dump scam that arrived in our mailbox this month, and have a look at how it played out in the markets. As you might expect, the results were not pretty.

Language is a Slippery Thing - Stock marketeers use all kinds of language tricks to make outrageous claims while avoiding legal responsibility. Get wise to their tricks.

Unscrupulous Stock Marketing: Our First Banned Advertiser - Our first banned advertisement is a great example of the kind of marketing you should ban as well, from your inbox and your mailbox. Outrageous claims of sky-high returns are a sure sign of an unscrupulous operator. Heed them at your peril.