The SEC doesn’t like stock spam. They’ve suspended trading in three companies as part of an anti-spam initiative, meant to deter e-mail campaigns that defraud investors.

From Reuters:

The SEC earlier this year launched an initiative to cut the profit potential for stock-touting spam, and said on Thursday that spam-related complaints to its online complaint center have been cut in half.

The agency also noted that recent reports indicate a significant drop in the stock market spam getting to e-mail inboxes.

“Because of our aggressive enforcement efforts, there has been a reported 30 percent drop in financial spam, and that means fewer investors are getting ripped off,” said SEC Chairman Christopher Cox in a statement.

The Symantec Internet Security Threat Report released on Sept. 17 said the decrease “is due to a decline in spam touting penny stocks that was triggered by actions taken by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, which limited the profitability of this type of spam by suspending trading of the stocks that are touted.”

Yay, get ’em! So far the SEC has suspended trading in 39 different companies. “This initiative will continue, and we are going to pursue those behind these fraudulent campaigns,” said Bruce Karpati, the SEC’s assistant regional director in the New York office.

US SEC says its anti-spam efforts cutting fraud [SEC]
(Photo:MovieScreenshots)

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