Slashdot Mirror
The SEC and Fake Investment Sites
An anonymous reader sent in: "Our web-based challenge for the day: find the SEC's fake investment sites! The SEC claims to have seeded the web with fake investment sites in order to teach naive web users and investors about the dangers of believing all you read and investing without research. These sites have telltale signs of online investment fraud, and if people manage to overlook or ignore those issues and attempt to invest money, informs them that they have made an unwise decision. The SEC says that these sites are intended to encourage wise investing decisions, or in more casual terms, to attempt to slap fools upside the head with a cluestick before they lose their money in a real scam. It's an interesting use of the web by a government-related agency."
And could someone please tell me why it's important for a computer geek (who most likely) dosn't really care about financial matters?
The death of one man is a tragedy; the death of a million is a statistic --Joseph Stalin
Taco has shit in his oatmeal one too many times. Now he's pissed off a large portion of his readership and no one is posting anymore.
Way to go, Taco! I give Slashdot 4 months at best before VA dumps it or you totally rearrange the attitudes and moderation system here.
-txr
of course some bozo actually tries to invest using information from said web sites
We're going to make information free Mr. Anderson, whether you like it, or not.
stacking the deck against darwin
Sweet.
What a cool way to teach the less-informed among us not to trust everything just because it's on the web. Now, if we could get websites out there that ask for personal info to do the same, ie:
Enter your credit card info here:
XXXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXXX
No Idiot, this site is about my dog skippy, there is no need for you to hand this over. Now get off the web and find a clue. (Hint: your 10 year old child is more web-savvy than you)
Sent from your iPad.
Any investment site that isn't Raging Bull, The Street.com, or the Motley Fool should be ignored completely. Of course there was that Tokyo Joe site that was really good, but it got taken down when Tokyo Joe was arrested for SEC violations.
In order to impress a more lasting lesson on the unknowing investor does the SEC keep their money?
Yes but every time I try to see it your way, I get a headache.
I want to fly away
http://www.enron.com/corp/
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
"A fool and his money are soon departed"?
I really wish the government would stop trying to "Protect" us in this manner. If you're stupid enough to trust a web site (or any publication for that matter) without doing your own research, then you deserve what you get.
Visit the Arcade Restoration Workshop @ http://www.arcaderestoration.com
This is a good idea =:-) It's sort of like putting a deliberately weak system on your network to see when somebody is attacking you and trap them, but it works in reverse. I think it's probably great in terms of the number of people it'll educate per tax dollar spent.
---
Play Six Pack Man. I
Doesn't care about financial matters? Are you still living with your parents? Computer geeks don't care about things like 401k or the stock market. We all just keep our cash under our matress.
SEC (MCWHORTLE-DOM)
6432 GENERAL GREEN WAY
ALEXANDRIA, VA 22312
US
Domain Name: MCWHORTLE.COM
Administrative Contact, Billing Contact:
SEC (VMGSFHPWCO) webmaster@mcwhortle.com
SEC
6432 GENERAL GREEN WAY
ALEXANDRIA, VA 22312
US
202 824 5151 fax: 202 504 2477
Technical Contact:
VeriSign, Inc. (HOST-ORG) namehost@WORLDNIC.NET
VeriSign, Inc.
21355 Ridgetop Circle
Dulles, VA 20166
US
1-888-642-9675 fax:
Record last updated on 09-Jan-2002.
Record expires on 08-Jan-2003.
Record created on 08-Jan-2002.
Database last updated on 30-Jan-2002 01:35:00 EST.
Domain servers in listed order:
CBRU.BR.NS.ELS-GMS.ATT.NET 199.191.128.105
CMTU.MT.NS.ELS-GMS.ATT.NET 12.127.16.69
Funny you should mention Raging Bull. That's where the company I used to work for perpetrated their pump-n-dump scam.
Shouldn't be too hard to find.
Registrant:
SEC (MCWHORTLE-DOM)
6432 GENERAL GREEN WAY
ALEXANDRIA, VA 22312
US
Domain Name: MCWHORTLE.COM
Administrative Contact, Billing Contact:
SEC (VMGSFHPWCO) webmaster@mcwhortle.com
SEC
6432 GENERAL GREEN WAY
ALEXANDRIA, VA 22312
US
202 824 5151 fax: 202 504 2477
Using your sig line to advertise for friends is lame.
that I can invest some Monopoly ® money?
... make sure to do your whois.
Registrant:
SEC (MCWHORTLE-DOM)
6432 GENERAL GREEN WAY
ALEXANDRIA, VA 22312
US
Domain Name: MCWHORTLE.COM
Administrative Contact, Billing Contact:
SEC (VMGSFHPWCO) webmaster@mcwhortle.com
SEC
6432 GENERAL GREEN WAY
ALEXANDRIA, VA 22312
US
202 824 5151 fax: 202 504 2477
[snip]
I can picture the site now: Todays' hot stock pick- Buy 1 get one free for ENRON shares.
On the other hand, though, it's kind of sad that there are people who actually invest in this kind of stuff. One would think that people would be (more) careful when there is real money involved. There are plenty of brokers out there, and while they may not give the *best* advice, they certainly wouldn't direct innocent people toward investments that are ovbiously scams. If you don't know what you're doing with your money, then take it to someone who does. If you don't, you're just asking for trouble.
On some level, people affected by these scams get what they have coming to them.
SEC Computers Catch Fire After During Hacker Attack
By Joe Snuffy
Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, January 30, 2002; 2:45 P.M.
The SEC headquarters was evacuated today after a form of the denial of service hacking attack, commonly known as "slashdotting" caused their servers to halt and catch fire. The FBI refuses to confirm that it may be seeking one Rob "Commander Taco" Malda for questioning in this terrorist attack on America's financial structure.
Best Slashdot Co
Design a website with "telltale signs of online investment fraud" and watch how many idiots still try to invest thru it. Then have a warning about how they could have been scammed, but they are lucky Big Brother was looking out for them, and it's not real. Then use the info they gave you to drain their bank accounts, and send an email to them, From: SEC, saying so long, and thanks for all the fish.
If they even comprehend what happened, they will blame the government, since we all know it's full of crooks anyway.
http://www.gppf.org/events/oswindle.htm Shows the FTC doing the exact same thing and discussing it in the 1990's. Sheesh, stuff from 3-5 years ago isn't exactly new :-)
It's showing that the government is begging to use the web in creative ways that dont harm users. I think it's a very good idea.
They have the Internet on computers now?
I love it. It is a great way to teach people not to trust everything they read on the net. And WhiteKnight, all the info is made up. The SEC made sure that you can't invest in the company or use the made up info to actually lose money. That was in the article.
We have often joked about doing something similar with viruses. Setting up a hotmail account and sending all the user in our department an attachment. The attachment would write to a log on our network and put up a dialog box that said something like "So you just ran a program from some joker on the internet. You've just lost all your work and your boss has been notified."
We haven't done it of course, but we dream.
Enron Investor Relations
I Heart Sorting Networks
You assume most computer geeks don't care about financial matters, just because you don't. That's just because you're still in school and living with mommy.
I just don't care about most things financial.
The easiest way to get to sleep for me is to hear one of those interesting (and I use the term loosely) reports.
The death of one man is a tragedy; the death of a million is a statistic --Joseph Stalin
There is NO company by that name. What are you going to invest in? Actually, send your cash to me, I'll invest it for a fee of only $5.95!
I submitted this on Monday (I mentioned it on my website) I was logged in, not anonymous. So much for logged in users taking precedence over anonymous users :-)
The best thing about a boolean is even if you are wrong, you are only off by a bit.
"You assume most computer geeks don't care about financial matters, just because you don't. That's just because you're still in school and living with mommy."
I just think that most of the interest in such things is usually either from business majors or people with a great deal of cash.
The death of one man is a tragedy; the death of a million is a statistic --Joseph Stalin
will be when someone "discovers" one of the fake sites, submits it to slashdot, it gets posted (of course), and the comments start rolling in.
:)
How long will it take before someone comments that its fake. We're quick to point out Xbox emulator fakes when we see them, but would we necessarily discover the nonexistance of a company when its intent is to defraud and not just to boost the false ego of a few misguided geeks.
So yeah, go find them. And when you find one, don't claim you found one, submit it to slashdot instead. Take the joke all the way!
-Restil
Play with my webcams and lights here
Pre-IPO Investment Oversubscribed!
McWhortle Enterprises has had to stop accepting investors for Stage 1 of its Pre-IPO investment after the program was over-subscribed by nearly 200%. Because of the enormous demand, we will, for a very limited time, accept new investors into this program.
Darn it, I was all ready to sign up, but I guess the rest of the slashdot community got to it before me.
Funny, Bush didn't mention the increased funding for the War on Stupidity last night...
If you look at the testimonials, it reads just like the typical MLM/"Not MLM!" scam spams that I've been getting lately, complete with the vague (un)identifying info. But this really begs the question: Why are people stupid enough to fall for these scams in the first place? I am strongly convinced that a majority of Americans are completely braindead.
found one!
ba-dum ching!
"Old man yells at systemd"
Maybe the SEC should advertise another product on the site called the SuckerDetector. Come on, who would really think that this device is even possible?
Just check Google for matching phrases! http://www.wemarket4u.net/prosperity/
The electric yellow has got me by the brain banana
I think there's a "preferences" page you can use to filter out financial stories, instead of bitching about them and publically proclaiming you don't care.
Talk to the checkbox.
Imagine getting paid by the SEC to make up stuff about a non-existent company. Where do I sign up?
OK, who pays for the development and hosting of these web sites? I assume it is my tax dollars being used to tell some gullable shmuck how gullable they really are. My guess is they don't learn anything from this, or worse yet, they think they've learned something but really haven't.
I Heart Sorting Networks
I think we /.'ed the SEC!
A new way to bring down Government!
Well, if happiness is bliss, and bliss is ignorance, and ignorance is a form of stupidity, then it follows that the Declaration of Independence guarantees your right to be an idiot.
Who are you to stand in the way of freedom?
Do you have Linux and a DotPal? Click here now!
Let the FBI put up sites for child porn, and the requirement for entry into the child porn is submitting your own child porn. Is this entrapment? What about the MPAA doing this with movie downloads?
Fight Spammers!
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission do a similar thing in print publications. They run
bogus investment ads, including Geep - the amazing Sheep/Goat hybrid and Jellyfish Farms. The numbers actually put you in contact with ASIC, who'll tell you to be more careful with your money.
I admit, these are a little easier to spot than the SEC ones...
|>
Here be Dragons
damn this sounds fine! Screw investing, where can I buy one!
-- www.globaltics.net
Political discussion for a new world
AMD
No, the stock market is of concern to many people who dropped out of their business major course in college to pursue the dotcom bubble, and who now have little money, but are still investing for their future.
So basically we can all wait for the report, find out which site worked the best, and copy it for our very convincing fraud companies.
;)
Nothing like having your tax dollars do a little free R&D for the bad guys!
------
Today's Top Deals
This is like a "honey pot" for investors?
~Sean
Funny too. Give it a try: http://www.brunching.com/toys/mrtname.html
Who moderates the meta-moderators?
Darn! I was just going to submit this story to Slashdot:
AC writes: Now, for the first time, McWhortle Enterprises is offering a product to the general public: the new Bio-Hazard Alert Detector. Running quietly on two double-A batteries, the Bio-Hazard Alert Detector emits an audible beep and flashes when in the presence of all known bio-hazards. The Bio-Hazard Alert Detector, measuring only 3 by 7 inches, is small enough to slip into a man's jacket pocket, a woman's purse or a child's backpack. Sounds like a good use of technology in the fight against terrorism!
These sites are represented by the law firm of Dewey, Cheatum, and Howe.
I wonder if the SEC anticipated getting /.ed when they estimated how much of a load this site would need to bear. What are their bandwidth costs? Is this /.ing hurting taxpayers?
Lasers Controlled Games!
We must invest based upon equal amount of ignorance. Should you actually know something good about the company, you are not allowed to invest or tell others to invest. Insider trading is bad, m'kay. You are allowed to use only ignorance and luck; intelligence and knowledge in gambling (stocks) is considered rude and illegal. ;)
Yeah, I know it's not exactly accurate, but it always struck me as a funny/messed up rule anyway.
http://mcwhortle.com/mcwbldg.jpg
Couldn't they have done a better photoshopping job on that 'logo' on the side of the building? Or even better, since this website (like everything in the government) cost around 10X more expensive than it should have been to make I bet they could've afforded a simple 'iron-on' banner to place on the side of the building.
Thanks,
--
Matt
Considering the huge amount of money that has been invested in techs the past 10 years, and a reliance on such techs by investors, nerds really should care about this stuff.
Here are the results of the domains owned by the SEC according to the whois database at network solutions:
WINDHANDEL.COM
SEC-CIVIL.COM
SECRECRUITMENT.COM
SEC-NL.COM
OPERATIONDESERTFOX.COM
DOUZALS.COM
SEC (SE463-ORG) no.valid.email@WORLDNIC.NET 619 487 7988
MCWHORTLE.COM
or1g1n4l gr33nsp4n.
Werd, motherbitches. Alan Greenspan owns the SEC, your bedroom, your momma.
There must be somethin in the water, cuz all I see are venture capitalists!
I swear to Bob, Alan Greenspan is the coolest person currently alive right now.
Get over it, already.
These sites are put up by the SEC, in order to show, I assume, what a con site would look like. Does this not give the less crafty cons out there some ideas on how to write their own REAL con sites?
Seems they haven't even configured some of them yet. ;)
http://seek2succeed.com/
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Oh bother.
Like the lottery, it's a tax on people who think they can get something for nothing or aren't good at math. I think the SEC's fake websites should solicit money, then use the money to pay for public service announcements telling people about online scams, and they have a list of people who need more education (talk about a targetted demographic). A fool and his money are easily parted, but at least we can educate the fool.
EDIT YOUR SLASHDOT USER PROFILE AND DISABLE THE TOPIC!
Talk the the checkbox!
Clue: Check the box by the topic "The Almighty Buck". Then go away and stop posting on this topic.
Clue #2: You are wrong in your assumption that most other people are just like you.
"http://www.lovecalculator.com This site is a fraud! Don't use it! You'll only become disenchanted! The only person that everyone---I mean EVERYONE---has a 100% chance with is Kevin Bacon. Yeah, I know...RUN!"
SEC must be stooping pretty low!
If you've never been modded as "flamebait" or "troll," you've never tried to argue a minority viewpoint here!
YOU might not care about financial matters, but many do. This forum appeals to people with many different interests. There's no single definition of what constitutes a computer geek, so please don't assume your likes and dislikes are the same as everybody elses.
I personally find this quite interesting... and not from a financial angle. This is an example of the goverment trying to use the very technology that can hurt it's citizens to educate them!
I'm sure, with all the money spent chasing down the scammers, an education program like this would slash the costs, and hopefully make spamming less attractive o-> with the desirable result, less spam! =-)
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
...as long as they don't resort to spamming to advertise their fake sites. I'd have to LART them if they did.
Search google for phrases on the mcwhortle page.
like this
Some of the sites have been indexed.
It's here.
The funny thing, is it's based on Enron's model.
-
--- Will in Seattle - What are you doing to fight the War?
Most brokers don't know squat. My boss (who sold his companies for $18 million) has to argue with his Meryll Lynch broker about why it's a good idea to dump his stocks that have losses to offset his gains on other sells. Pathetic.
I wonder how long before the SEC realizes that 99% of it's "duped" investors were referred from Slashdot. CmdrTaco may be getting a little visit... :-)
-Don
Take a look and feel free: http://www.PieMenu.com
My favorite response to the Monkey quote (especally in regards to Windows) is:
Nah - 30 monkeys, four hours. Tops.
For lunch today I had a Spicy Chicken Combo (#6) from Wendy's. For my drink selection I choose Diet Coke - being that I am a caffeine junkie - the 0 calories does me well - it help me not turn into a overweight 'I love linux' junkie.
Slashdotting the SEC's just gotta violate some law...
Not really. Now they can tell the news media how many page hits they got from interested investors.
Just think of the positive publicity!
-
--- Will in Seattle - What are you doing to fight the War?
"And could someone please tell me why it's important for a computer geek (who most likely) dosn't really care about financial matters?"
once i graduated from college i learned very quickly that the only thing that drives our society is money...this is a sad fact, but one that must be accepted if we have any expectations for living decent lives in a capitalistic society. financial issues cannot and should not be avoided especially if one has any deisre to own a car or house, provide for a family, or even create a decent pension. making the choice to not care about such matters will, for the majority of people, put one in a severly disadvantged position later in life...becoming a drain on the economy and the rest of us who do care.
dude.
Are movies a tax on people who aren't good at math? What about books? The lottery is escapist entertainment. And at a dollar a ticket, it's a better value than a movie. And with the dreck churned out of Hollywood, you have a better chance of winning $100 million than seeing a good flick.
Way to say it, bruthah. Maybe the dearth of posts is because all of the interesting posters have been IP banned.
The IP ban is slash-leech's own form of CENSORSHIP. Even your truthful and insightful post has been modded to troll status, because it does not tow the line. Note, you are not "offtopic", but a "troll". Why? Because you don't sing the praises of slashditz to the high heavens. Soon, you too will be censored via IP banning.
Slashdot is still the stupidest, leechiest site in the web, with "stories" posted by two bit hacks and leeches who can't come up with their own original content to save their sorry butts. This is the only place in the world where a 4 paragraph "review" of a video game passes for legitimate content. Pathetic!
Good luck slashidiots, you're going to need it when this site collapses and you have to find work in the real world. I just pray to g*d that I'm still here to see it happen.
What the hell is a whinner?
we are just puppets for the editors.
Like we really need the SEC putting up investment scams and hoping we find them. I get half a dozen investment fraud websites showing up in my email every day, which I dutifully report to the SEC. If they want you to see what a fraudulent stock scam looks like, why don't they just advertise the thousands that are already out there that they know about?
Financial Web sites posted information they knew to be false? Presumably, after the trap was sprung on clueless investors, you'd think they would look elsewhere for their financial information.
When's the next Anal Cox -ac kernel coming out?
The government is helping the man. What I have to wonder here is what happens when someone with enough time on their hands really put this to the test. Not one fake website but many, all tied together to propagate the lie. Sort of a way to spread disinformation.
I wish the FDA would do the same with "alternative medicine" sites.
The FDA should seed the web with "herbal viagra", "super blue green algae", etc sites, then slap mofo's upside the head when they are stupid enough to actually try ordering.
I submitted this on Monday (I mentioned it on my website) I was logged in, not anonymous. So much for logged in users taking precedence over anonymous users :-)
... excuse me ... reviews of media releases (DVDs) and movies that encourage free software enthusiasts to go out and put money in the pockets of an industry bent on hamstringing the internet and legislating free software (and the tools to make it) out of existence.
I quit submitting stories to slashdot years ago, when similar things would happen. The submission process is straightforward enough, but the editorial process is about as transparent as crude oil on a moonless night. Who knows why stories get rejected one day, resubmitted and accepted another, with the latecommer getting the credit. Who knows why a site which purports to be pro free software/open source/whatever dumps stories of technical interest in favor of promotions
I gave up trying to figure this out years ago, and now content myself to just reading whatever interesting stuff happens to make it through the filter, and posting an occasional diatribe or two.
I recommend anyone discontent with this sort of thing to do the same. It will entail much less frustration and heartache for you, and if enough people do it perhaps the editors will take the hint and become more fair in how they select stories and attribute them. In the meantime, life is too short, so don't let this sort of irritation get to you.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
It's just a 1x1 gif from the Xtreme tracker service.
Boo!
-- Adam
How gullible do they think people are?
Are they going to spam everyone on the internet to attract interest as well?
I have a problem with this. The U.S. government is, once again, lying. People need to be able to trust their government, but the government engages in every kind of behavior that it calls criminal.
For a small collection of U.S. government lies and misleading behavior, see this collection of links I put together: What should be the Response to Violence?
Bush's education improvements were
The ASIC - Australia's equivalent to the SEC - has been runnning bogus internet scams of their own for a while now. They even have awards for the best (or worst depending on your viewpoint) scams found - The Gull Awards (past winners)
Thats Gull as in Gullible.
*** I am the real stylewagon
Me scratches head while looking at 1040.
Meanwhile is appears that Reaganitis has spread through the Whitehouse once more.... Enron who!!..I do not recall Enron.
Yep.
So all this time the "MAKE MONEY FAST!!!" spam was just an SEC hoax? Whodathunkit?
While this is a fine idea, they really need to put similar warnings on the Social Security web site.
How to solve most of our problems: 1.Lots of nuclear plants. 2.Cure aging.
So this is what my tax dollars went to vs. stopping Enron before it was too late. SIGH! Besides, I always heard that it was a sin to let a fool keep his money.
"Love is a familiar; Love is a devil: there is no evil angel but Love." --William Shakespeare ('Love's Labors Lost')
Erm. I dunno,I think you're walking on the edge of a bomb with that one. I'm for the camp that I don't give a fuck if that's entrapment. If you're willing to submit child porn to anyone (thus proving you're sick enough to have it) you deserve whatever happens to you. But that's just my opinion. If this is entrapment then I, for one, don't care in this case. Entrap every single one of them. Then cut their nuts off.
To bid on these shares, you must quickly e-mail us the number of shares you wish to purchase, together with your major credit card number and social security number (for identification) so we can reserve your slot.
Thanks, SEC! Now I now where to listen for plain text emails containing social security card and credit numbers. So perhaps you are teaching people a lesson, but who's gonna pay when they become real victims of identity and credit card theft?
The way they are handling this is just as irresponsible as the people who would actually email sensitive information.
No, Thursday's out. How about never - is never good for you?
Hmm, if there are enough in the air for this imaginary device to detect, then wouldn't I be breathing them in? Especially if it is in a "woman's purse, or a child's backpack."
"Da ist ein Technölüst in mein Unterpanten!"
I didn't know the government was into pr0n with all thos SECs sites.
Is there any irony in the SEC using an open source OS to host a fictitious company's web site?
Global Crossing
DNC head Terry McAuliffe turned a $100,000 stock investment into $18,000,000! Now you can too!
George Bush Sr. agreed to take shares in lieu of an $80,000 speaking fee. At it's high, the stock was worth more than $14,000,000! Invest NOW to get on the gravy train!
http://www.wemarket4u.net/
Yes, really. Domain is registered to the federal trade commission.
I typed in the phone number they gave out on the site on google and it pointed me to a finacial articial on yahoo. Is yahoo in conhoots with the SEC?
"All I can tell the "lesser of two evils" folks is that if they keep voting for evil, they'll keep getting evil."-Lp.org
It must be since, it's Slashdotted already.
Now the SEC is going to review the logs and see ALL this traffic and panic. I can see the CNN headline now:
The SEC today anounced that, even it was amazed and alarmed by the amount of people seemingly willing to invest in obvious scams. They stated that fraudulent investment scams on the internet were a known problem but, that they had no idea how many moronic investors were out there willing to invest. Especially in light of the present economy.
The Whitehouse has tasked the SEC with developing a $10Billion program to educate and warn nit wit investors.
Film at eleven.
Need. More. Sleep. Ignore parent post.
No, Thursday's out. How about never - is never good for you?
.
.
only thing that drives our society is money.
don't be such a cynic. Just because comptuer geeks never find it doesn't mean there isn't anything more. There are a few people in the real world who have found love, and that drives them to things that money doesn't,
Saddly, as a comptuer geek I can note the existance of this phenomenon, but cannot accually participate. I also note that most who claim to have found it realise in 10 years that they have not. Still there are exceptions.
Government photo forgers: next time use antialiased text, or at least forge the pictures at a higher resolution, then scale it down to a smaller size to get rid of the seams and jaggies.
Other than that, it's a great anti-scam!
-Don
Take a look and feel free: http://www.PieMenu.com
The FDA and FTC do have some phony medical sites up. When you get to the "order page", you'll get a Government warning instead. Can you find them?
Just looking over the 'investor relations' page. Looks like they recently changed their stock symbol.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
"You just accidentally voted for George W Bush! That was extremely foolish. But it doesn't matter because the outcome of the election is up to Enron and the Supreme Court."
-Don
Take a look and feel free: http://www.PieMenu.com
any site that fails to use a BGCOLOR tags in its body definition immediately comes under suspicion. i browse using netscape, and the default background color for undefined pages is "Netscape Grey" and not white, as it is under explorer.
as soon as i see graphics with white halos hovering on a grey background, i know the site is run by an inexperienced webmaster, and any information on the site is likely fraudulent.
take, for example, Slashdot's light mode...
- Entertaining Bits from the Ancient Kernel Tree
Offtopic gripe about evil copyright-holding corporation!
- Have a picture
ZeoSync Makes Claim of Compression Breakthrough
http://www.wemarket4u.net/
Did anyone else notice that the device on the main page for McWhortle actually has a telephone keypad, minus the center column?
If you look closely, you can see what is written on the keys: 1, 3def, 4ghi, 6mno etc.
So do you think they did that on purpose as a warning sign? Or was someone just lazy when they were using PhotoShop?
I'm bored at work, as you can probably tell... :o)
http://www.wemarket4u.net/
It looks like they've been doing this for around two years now.
This is what the SEC spends it's money on? How about arresting thieves from Enron for a change? Don't say they didn't know, they did, they do, they are. Don't be fooled.
i understand where you are coming from, and i definately agree with you. however, i feel my point was missed. you see, i'm talking about the understanding of financial matters and money as they relate to the capitalistic society in which we live. this is in no way related to the individual. money is the last thing which individual happiness should be based on, the are many more important things like love, family, health, knowledge...etc. however, the framwork of our society (which is composed of millions of individuals) is driven primairly by money. there is nothing cynical about that, its fact. being able to function in society and provide oneself the ability to care for the ones they love, plan for the future, or simply save to get a new tv all requires money. having a basic understanding of financial issues and how money works, is very important and is not limited to CPA's and business majors. being a computer geek does not exlcude me from having to worry about such matters.
dude.
Now all i need to do is seed the internet with copies of said sites - however I will not tell the people about their unwise investing... rather I will take their investments and apply them to my world domination fund!!!
Thanks SEC.
man,how depressing are you? sheeesh.
I've been a computer geel since '81, and an electronic geek for as long as I can remember. I built my first radio when I was 7, and explained how it worked.
I have been married for just about 12 years, and I've been in love for 14 years.
The key is, get out and do something else. take up kyaking, or climbing, or surfing, something, anything that has little to do with computers.
There are plent of intelegent attarctive people out there, not all of them are geeks.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Sir, you do the world a great service. Thank you.
I don't think the SEC really gets it. I've been wrong lots of times before and I might be here. Personally, whenever I see a website that contains something that I'm even moderately curious about, I click on their "order here" button even if I'm not going to order anything. My hopes is that they might have some additional piece of critical information that wasn't obvious in the rest of their sight (for example shipping costs, payment options, etc). The point is that I generally investigate a site pretty thoroughly before I commit to sending any of *my* information to them.
I doubt that I'm alone in this practice. What this means is that clicking on the "gotcha link" at McWhortle.com isn't really a gotcha. It's just part of trying to find out additional information about the company. If you really want to implement the "gotcha" I would think you'd have to delay the "gotcha" right up until someone actually is really ready to bid/purchase/whatever. You got to get to the point, I'd think, where people are actually thinking about doing this, and *then* hit them with the "gotcha". Otherwise, anyone who gets to the current "gotcha page" is going to dismiss it with, "Well, yeah I kinda thought this wasn't right. Glad I don't get caught by these things. Glad I don't have to worry about these kind of scams... on the other hand, check out this other site! Wow, investments in working cold fusion?"
I would think if you're trying to convince someone that they are too gullible, you got to catch them in the process of actually having taken the bait. Otherwise, they're not likely to learn.
$.02. Am I off my rocker?
Key to financial independence: Spend less than you earn. Save and invest the difference. Do it for a long time.
Yes! it's perfect! Muahahah! We'll create a whole bunch of fake companies, put up flashy web pages with trendy earthtone color-schemes, advertise things people need like.. uh.. value-added B2B online toilet paper warehouses. Then we'll launch a bunch of fake IPO's that'll go wild because we're on the Internet and everybody knows the future of business is on the Internet! Yes. And then we'll take the money and run! That'll teach the fools to not believe all they read AND it'll stimulate the economy at the very same time!! Muahahah!
Oh wait..
The SEC prosecutes people that setup fake investment websites ... but now they're making their own to teach people a lesson? Maybe I'm asking the obvious, but I thought the SEC's jurisdiction entailed regulating securities transactions ... not serving as a teaching organization. Maybe next week they can prosecute themselves for investment fraud of this site.
http://www.wemarket4u.net/
has the list of fake sites with stats.
It's a shame that our government feels compelled to play "mother hen" to fools and is spending money and resources to do so.
(insert favorite rant against liberal democrats here)
It's not the government's job to be your mama.
..trying to stop Napster by uploading renamed MP3's of Homer Simpson repeatedly saying D'oh!
you stinky goatlickin' spoogemonkeys are making it hard for me to browse at -1.
You are shooting off your own foots i tell you.
If you continue this i will have difficulty finding my way to your home to pleasure your mom and your aunt millie. and you KNOW who's door millie comes knockin' on after she's had a couple whiskey sours at the bowling alley dontcha fucko? Yeah, that's right, and i'm gonna tell her to leave the bowling shoes ON next time.
It's true, the lies are not intended to be destructive. But I think that they are unintentionally destructive, because they make us all realize that our government cannot be trusted not to lie.
I am very much for educating the public. This, in my opinion, is not the way to do it.
Bush's education improvements were
And Google returned the following when using the Designed by MACS Online line at the bottom of one of the scam pages:
You Could Get Scammed! If you pursued the Virility Plus impotence treatment offer... File a Complaint YOU COULD HAVE ...
www.wemarket4u.net/virilityplus/order.htm - 5k - Cached - Similar pages
Orgamax the latest herbal alternative to Viagra from Herbal ...
Orgamax is the exciting new sexual revitalisation formula that acts as
both an aphrodisiac and a performance enhancer for men. ...
Description: Orgamax is the exciting new sexual revitalisation formula that acts as both an aphrodisiac and a performa...
Category: Shopping > Health > Conditions and Diseases > Impotence
www.orgamax.co.uk/ - 7k - Cached - Similar pages
Eagles Nest Success Partners - Ultra Arginine Enhance Your Sexual Functioning and Support Immune and Cardiovascular Systems! ... Did you know? ...
Description: Enhance your sexual performance. Support cardiovascular and immune system and erectile functioning....
Category: Shopping > Health > Conditions and Diseases > Impotence
www.building4success.com/arginine_ultra.htm - 10k - Cached - Similar pages
Natural Wood Description: An all natural alternative to Viagra, NaturalWood has been in use for thousands of years by native... Category: Shopping > Health > Conditions and Diseases > Impotence www.naturalwood.com/ - 1k - Cached - Similar pages
Ultra "V" Plus for Men and Women, Viagra Alternative for ...
Check Out Our Complete Product Line. Check Out NuBio's Other Fine Products. ... Save
10% on his and hers order with the Luvpak. ...
Description: Complete information on a Viagra alternative at a fraction of the cost.
Category: Shopping > Health > Conditions and Diseases > Impotence
nubioresearch.com/ultrav/ - 27k - Cached - Similar pages
So who is being protected when all they did was repeat the actual Losers sites of scammers? Why not shut them down instead of just copying them?
You keep going until you die..."Me".
Go to the front page here, to see how many suckers each site has gotten:
http://www.wemarket4u.net/
Twoflower
--
Twoflower
Sorry, I couldn't read most of your comment. The page seems to be too wide for it to fit all on one screen. Please post again with a maximum of 5 words per paragraph.
Most real companies get the sucks.com domain if some disgruntled party didn't beat them to the punch.
Someone with time on their hands could make a decently funny parody site.
This is a shite idea.
It just pollutes the web with another website offering the same type of advice as a "legitimate" scam site, further substantiating the actual scams.
That's all that needs to be said on this.
Steal a few credit cards, register a couple of domains, set up a phony investment site. Roll the money in, create phony credit cards. Repeat cycle.
Has anyone run through and seen whether or not they actually give enough feedback to tell the user, "This is how to identify a phony site."
Did anyone read the Enron Human Rights Statement? The part concerning "fair compensation" for employees was quite laughable :)
Honorable mentions also go to the clause concerning the conducting of businesses according to given laws, along with the section concerning "Respect".
In case of fire, do not use elevator. Use water!
The weekly e-mail from the Motley Fool website states they've decided to make the majority of good information on their site only available to paying customers for 20 some dollars a year. My first piece of "Foolish" (free of charge) investing advice is save yourself more than $20 a year by getting info from other web sources.
Instead of wasting valuable resources making fake fraud sites, why not invest those resources into vigorous prosecution of securities fraud? I mean start locking lots of guys up in maximum security facilities for a long time and strip them and their families of their assets. And start with Fortune 500 companies playing footsie with the rules. Rules not tough enough? Use some of the money to lobby congress for increased criminal penalties and jail time for securities fraud.
If the enforcement resources are wasted on BS education efforts and the penalties are soft (fines, probation, country club minimum security "jails"), people are going to keep doing it.
Pretending to steal my money and calling it fighting theft instead of actually finding and punishing people who steal is stupid, plain and simple.
Crispin
----
Crispin Cowan, Ph.D.
Chief Scientist, WireX Communications, Inc.
Immunix: Security Hardened Linux Distribution
Available for purchase
Don't invest in anything with which you are not intimately familiar.
If people would obey this rule it would pretty much stop scams in their tracks.
Look at the title on the videonewswire link off the mchwortle.com press section...
Just think of it from the perspective of a new investor:
"Hmm...this company is tring to make a living selling "Free Software". And they say it is better than Microsoft's software! Lies! Call the SEC!"
But then again some scepticism would have been a good thing during the DotBomb era.
[End of diatribe. We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming...] - Larry Wall in Configure from the perl
When is McWhortle going to become pud's newest hall of fame inductee?
...because it stayed up after being posted on slashdot.
/. effect.
Any legit company would have succumbed to the
It's supposed to be completely automatic, but actually you have to press this button.
Just a point of curiosity... But what happens when the SEC/FTC begins to buy bulk email addresses and spam people? :-/
Some of the "hook and sinker" sites are along many of the same lines of the spam i receive (Virility Drugs, Home-Use Electronics, Offshore Investing), so whats keeping them from sending out UBE/UCE to generate hits and then inform the dim-bulb they made a grave mistake?
Personally, i believe my inbox is cluttered enough, and would much prefer natural selection to take its course and those who can't manage their investments (online or otherwise) be damned...
IANAL.
SEC doesnt have legal athority except in fraud, thats why they settle many cases with people for a cut of the profit.
Many people just let these agencies run them over, you do have legal rights. And surprise, sometimes our courts uphold them.
From netrcraft.com:
The site mcwhortle.com is running
Apache/1.3.22 (Unix) on Linux.
The SEC didn't get Yahoo to write a story on them, they just released a press release through PRNewswire. Yahoo picks these up and carries them. Note both the "WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 /PRNewswire/" at the beginning and "SOURCE: McWhortle Enterprises, Inc." at the top and bottom.
It is a good lesson. But it would be extremely valuable if our government was the one that tried honesty.
Bush's education improvements were
This is an interesting episode of "crime jamming" and reminds me of strategies to reduce the population of unwanted insects. Criminals are exposed by dilluting their means to scam people with "neutered" sites.
I could see this successfully applied to illegal online gambling, murder-for-hire, illegal forms of pornography, perhaps even to nab would-be terrorists.
Unfortunately for the slashdot crowd, I could see the MPAA and other corporate orgs posting sites which catch people attempting to download software and content that they did not pay for. Hopefully, in this case, would-be bandits would only get Apple's favorite community service message: "Don't Steal Music".
- James
I suspect that at one point that link led to a form asking for personal data, and only after submission did they serve up the "gotcha" page.
evidence to support this can be found on the gotcha page where they say:
Finally, McWhortle asked victims to supply a major credit card and social security number, "for identification purposes." The FTC wants you to be aware that by stealing your name, credit card number and/or social security number, fraudsters can effectively steal your identity and ruin your credit rating. Read more about identity theft here. (And by the way, we have not collected any information about you.)
I can't find McWhortle's request for CC or SSN on the current site, so perhaps the site has been changed
who knows why they changed it. even though they "have not collected any information about you" perhaps they didn't have https set up and they realised that having morons sending that information in the clear was a bad idea.
Indeed. Take for example Google's Zeitgeist. The two most popular searches in September 2001 were "Nostradamus" and "CNN". For september 11th here, the most puplar search was for cnn. I'm sorry, but the internet is full of morons now. How much of an idiot do you have to be to need to search for "cnn"? Gah.
This is a great idea. Next they should send out fake spam and when people reply they will be sent an email informing them that replying to spam only increases the likelyhood of more spam.
Let's hope not!
Jettra
McWhortle is actually listed in an SEC Press Release, so it's not only slashdotters... Where are the other sites though? Alex
Absinthe makes the heart grow fonder
The SEC is spending my tax money on this.
Remember that the SEC is not a cooperatively run citizens advocacy group, or watchdog group, or anything voluntary at all. It is a government agency that spends other peoples money to fund their pet projects.
That said, I might have contributed to such an educational program myself, if given the choice. Taxes provide no such choice.
Bob-
The Ludwig von Mises Institute. The reasoning individuals economics
I dont know if any of you are fans of the movie Sneakers, but does the building look familiar to you? hmm... --theKiyote
thank you for informing those "who lack intelligance."
I ate my sig.
This will also allow the SEC to use these sites for statistical sampling to estimate how many really stupid people are actually on the internet at any one time.
OTOH, if you let them know sooner, then you will get to warn a larger number of slightly-less-gullible people about the potential for investment scams.
Apparently nobody else has notices the acronym on their primary product, the Bio-Hazard Alert Detector.
BHAD
B HAD
Or is it just me?
You know, if you play the Devil's advocate here, these sites could actually be used by less-than honest people as templates to set up sites that really DO plan to rip people off. Just find one of the more convincing SEC fake sites, change it around a bit, and start raking in the dough from the sheeple... I just KNOW that someone, somewhere is working on one of these right now.
PK: 09F911029D74E35BD84156C5635688C0
Our pheerless leader's name should be listed as Commander Rob "Taco" Malda, hence the abbreviation "Cmdr. Taco".
-B
Not that this wasn't entirely predictable.
Here is a list of FTC pages including some new for 2001, and stats on the traffic they have been getting.
http://www.wemarket4u.net/
well, they got the Java guy in a similar way.
to be murdered than to win the lottery. So I don't enter the lottery. I hope this way to avoid being murdered :-)
The SEC even took pictures of buildings and photoshopped the name of their "company" onto them.
http://www.mcwhortle.com/mcwbldg.jpg
Photoshoppers apply now.
http://www.mcwhortle.com/stats/usage_200201.html (found from robots.txt) - So far we've got them up to 0.9GB, at hundreds of thousands of hits. Reload and enjoy watching the slashdot effect in real time =). Oh, and let's hear a cheer for the SEC for doing this the economical/intelligent way!
See what I mean here (I find it unnecessary to duplicate comments).
From http://www.mcwhortle.com/robots.txt
/stats/>
/financials.htm
/onlinebid.htm
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
which means that we can't just search for other web sites with a "don't be a fool" page like the onlinebid.htm page at mcwhortle.
Why the fuck is this flaimbate? I think the child porn loving person that modded this flaimbate should have his nuts cut off too. I think CMiYC is completely reasonable in his statement.
That's slashdot for you....
... As long as they don't spam me with solicitations to invest in this scheme!
Isn't this just going encourage some scammers to set up similar 'test-sites' that take all the information they need, then tell you not to fall for scams and proceed to cheat you out of your money anyway?
not to be a bastard, but a moonless night won't make anything less transparent. think about it - when you turn the lights off, does glass go opaque?
-c
"I hope I don't make a mistake and manage to remain a virgin." - Britney Spears
This site was created by the SEC, FTC, NASD, with a little help from their friends, the Whitehouse.
The agencies and groups, except one, created the site because of an increase in investment scams. But the Bush Administration has invoked executive privaledge to keep its reasons for helping to create the site secret.
The site shows some of the telltale signs of online investment fraud. Promises of fast and high profits, with little or no risk, are classic red flags of fraud. And one obvious tip off was that they claimed to be a broadband provider who's 'business model is working.'
Okay folks. Many people are claiming that nobody would be stupid enough to fall for the (known) SEC fakes. Especially if their fake status becomes "common knowledge". Well, I've got some news for you.
There are people who forward chain letters because they're afraid they'll die if they don't. There are people who believe Amway will make them rich. There are people who think Scientology makes sense. There are people who killed themselves in late 1999 (IIRC) to meet on the backside of a comet.
There are people who believe that Bill Gates will pay them for being part of an email tracking experiment. There are people who believe computer viruses can make your ice cream go all melty (well, maybe that's stretching things...). Some people gave money, of their own free will, to Donald Trump.
And there are people who believed GW Bush had a "clear policy for the Middle East" during the presidential debates.
You could show the mcwhortle site to these people, tell them it's a fake, and they'd still fall for it. While we like to claim that those who write "first post" are the least intelligent creatures on earth, they're already head-and-shoulders above the people the SEC is trying to help. Many of these people are retired, and hoping to get something back from the society they gave 40+ years of work to (like my father). Some of these people abandon all reason when it comes to this hope (unlike my father, thankfully).
The SEC is trying to reduce the number of fraud-related tragedies among these people, and I think it's a good thing. In fact, I think this is one of the coolest things I've seen our government do for the public, ever. The SEC seems to have a clue about real life and real people, unlike the Whitehouse and Congress (no matter who is in residence at the time).
-Paul Komarek
Does it strike anyone besides me as just a wee bit wrong to have an FTC Commissioner named Mr. Swindle?
I am strongly convinced that a majority of Americans are completely braindead.
Braindead or were never taught how to think? The brain is like a muscle in the sense that if you don't use it, it gets weak. Unfortunately, most children, even in the US, are not taught how to flex their brains.
FTC Teaser Pages - Page Views by Month
The table shows the number of page views for each of the FTC's teaser sites. The page views are based on accesses to the initial page of each site.
YAAD
No, but close. We actually used to do business with you guys...tried to model our business on yours. I guess we were closer than we thought...haha.
If they're that stupid, why not take the money and use it to fund (voter-friendly) tax cuts?
After all, the 'tax on fools' principle has already been established - in this country, England, anyway - by the National Lottery.
Moreover, once word got out that the Government, rather than some dodgy dealer, was overtly nicking people's money, Internet scams would die out overnight. Being ripped off is one thing, paying more money to the government than you have to is what really pisses people off.
You're only jealous cos the little penguins are talking to me.
Good way to scare people away from using the internet at all, no?
This foolery could very well have been conducted from multiple fronts (including non-web methods), but, AIUI, it wasn't.
Well, they have to show it at some point - sooner than later means they address a larger audience - even if some of it unnecessary.
Anyway (somewhat offtopic) - isn't this a reason why Passport should fail? I would want to be sure that a Website doesn't get my data before I enter them. So would the next guy. Spread some (substantiated) FUD and say goodbye to Hailstorm, Passport or whatever you call it...?
At least the SEC isn't spamming also.
Tracy Johnson
Old fashioned text games hosted below:
http://empire.openmpe.com/
BT
Easy acceptance that your government lies is acknowledgement that it is not your government.
Bush's education improvements were
It's not a troll. I've learned a lot from the responses. Some people seem to feel that asking their government to be responsible is beyond imagining.
If you are a U.S. citizen, you pay for this attitude. You pay Israel $905 per year for every man, woman, and child who lives there. Why? Apparently so that U.S. weapons makers can make more profit.
If you allow your government to lie, you can be sure of two things: 1) You won't be the one in control. 2) You will pay.
The U.S. government does a lot of things you probably don't suspect and for which, if you are a U.S. citizen, you probably don't want to pay. For example, the U.S. government brought Arabs to the U.S. and trained them in terrorism. The U.S. government was planning to attack Afghanistan long before the September 11, 2001 terrorism in the U.S. because a profitable oil and gas pipeline is planned that must go through Afghanistan. The terrorism apparently gave the government the excuse for which it was looking. For more about this, see the collection of links in What should be the Response to Violence?.
Bush's education improvements were
I also wonder if it could be applied to other situations:
DMV insider: Sir, would you like a stiff drink before your long drive? You probably won't even notice it...
or
FDA insider: Ma'am, would you like to buy this unlabeled food product? It's probably not poisonous...
or
Campaign Finance Reform insider: Mr. CEO, would you like to invest in this slimy politician? You probably won't get in trouble...
I can see lots of potential for this kind of education.