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Junk those rampers By Tony Hetherington
At first I thought it was just me. Then friends said it was happening to them as well. Yes, we have all suddenly become very popular with people who send mysterious emails with a share tip buried in the middle. In the Was it a party we were both at? Or was it a drunken night so memorable that I don't recall a single thing about it? Send them soaring Disappointingly, the message itself is irrelevant clutter about sharing commercial rights to anything from songs to serialised novels. All, that is, except for 10 brightly coloured lines that stand out from the rest. These tell me to buy shares in L International Computers - a 'very strong buy' at $1.15 apiece, since news about to break will send them soaring to $15 within the next five days. Just a few hours later, 'Roy McGill' emails me too. The subject line reads 'familiar gadget'. This is puzzling. I don't do gadgets and am still working out which way up to hold my front door key. But sure enough, buried in an email about men's wristwatches, Roy gets across his real message: invest in L International Computers. "This train will not wait for you if you miss it!" he warns. Lightening bolt Next day it's the turn of 'Clem Lowe'. His email catches my eye with the single word 'drag' as its subject. Drag racing? Life's a drag? Or perhaps he was at Chris Fitzgerald's memorable drag party? Who knows? The email is about an online charity auction, apart from the now familiar lines in bright colours, this time tipping shares in Industrial Minerals. At 34 cents a time, Clem cannot contain his enthusiasm: "This is a lightning bolt of cash! Hot, fast, and soaring upwards!" However, after researching these tips, I'm brought back to earth with a bump. Enquiries in the US show that L International Computers is a small Californian company. There are no publicly available accounts, so it's impossible to judge the value of its shares. What is clear though is that five days after the prediction that they would rocket from $1.15 to $15, the disappointing truth is that they have slipped to $1.06. They did briefly climb above $1.20, however, so clearly someone was buying as a result of the email tips. And clearly someone was selling, so maybe adding five cents to the share price for a day or so was the real aim all along. Loss warning Canadian mining company Industrial Minerals does at least release its accounts. They show regular losses and include the warning: "The company does not have the necessary funds to operate throughout its fiscal year ending 31 December 2006." Immediately after Clem's email, the shares went up to 37 cents, but then slipped back to 33 cents. Lightning bolts do head down, not up after all. Emails like these are increasingly being used to manipulate share prices or give them a temporary boost so that an existing shareholder can bale out. While ordinary junk mail wastes your time, these messages can waste your money too, so don't even consider giving them the time of day.
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