What's up with this constant spam?!?

Question

I constantly receive emails like the following at work. What's up with these emails? How does this scam work?

"Trading Alert To all our Members!

Can you make some fast money on a Red Hot G0LD stock? Put this one on your RADAR N0W!

Get Eqtd first thing Thursday morning. This is going to EXPLODE over the next couple days! A Massive PR campaign is underway for all next week in support of HUGE acquisition news. We expect MASSIVE gains!

Company: EQUAL TRADING inc.

Right now PRECI0US METAL ST0CKS are one of the hottest things going. G0LD is at its highest level in decades and experts agree that this trend shows no sign of abating. Eqtd is expecting explosive acquisition news which is going to take this winner further in to the stratosphere!

Ticker: EQTD
Current Price: $O.O149
Target Price: $O.O4 Someone knows something!!!
Recommendation: 1O(1O) BUY

EQTD is coming through when the price of precious metals is going through the roof. Increasing demand from China"

Answer 1

Not an "investing" question. You have a spam problem, not an investing problem.

The best way to do away with spam is to open a second email account, and never, ever, ever sign up online for anything on the internet with that account.

Now that the internet folks have your email address, your spam problem will only get worse as they sell your information to others, pass it around, trade it for other information, and generally expand the proliferation of your email address.

Almost all ISP's offer multiple email addresses, or you can get a freebie from Yahoo or MSN or whatever.

Not only the "best" way, but the only way to do away with spam is to create a clean email account, and don't give it away to people you don't know. Nobody can use your email address that you don't give it to. Use your spammed account to chat or join RSS feeds or groups.

Good luck fighting the old account. It's a losing battle.

Incidentally, I have an email account I use strictly for my business that has never received one email I didn't want; not one piece of spam in over a year. What a pleasure it is to use, when you know waiting email is something you need or want. No more time wasted for unnecessary "maintenance" and fiddling with filters and blockers and the latest new spam program. Screw that; make the switch, then be careful.

Answer 2

Legitimate companies that want you to buy their stock don't send mass emails, and wouldn't allow insider information to be 'leaked.' Under SEC's rules and regs, trading based on insider information is illegal, and this email implies you would be doing this.

However, these emails are sent out on pink sheet stocks--stocks that do not trade on an organized boards that follow laws set forth by the SEC (ie. NYSE, AMEX, etc.). They're high risk. The people that send these emails figure that if people buy a bunch of these stocks, they'll drive the price of this stock up. Then, when the price goes up, they sell (or have purchased a call option, and then simply sell that to do the same thing).

Buying stocks over the counter (pink sheet) is highly risky, and you lose the protections provided for you by SEC regulations and oversight. Yeah, you can make money from this, but I can almost guarantee you'll make the exact same return if you sent me all your money instead.

Answer 3

Well as far as i know, when you signing up to random things on the internet, you have to make sure u tick a box or something like that saying that you dont want your details passed on to any third party, otherwise they use your email to send you spam. They make the money though advertising (sending out the spam) and through people buying their products or what not through the emails

Answer 4

i became cautioned this:- once you get an e-mail you do not desire, placed a tick contained in the field next to the sender's call, then click the junk mail button. A message comes up "This message has been marked as junk mail" & you could not have any extra issues from that individual. even with the undeniable fact that, you could get some from different gamers, yet purely keep hitting that anti junk mail button.

Answer 5

They send out these notices getting people to buy the penny stock and artifically inflate the price so they can sell their shares.

I have tried trading penny stocks once before. It's not worth it. There are never enough shares available for me to buy and never enough demand for me to sell my large quantities.