It's just a chatty message, one girlfriend to another, left in your voice mailbox by mistake.
But wait. What's this?
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Audio: Listen to a sample of one of the scam voice mail messages. (Courtesy SEC).
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Press Release: Con Artists Using "Wrong Number" Answering Machine Messages to Snare Victims in New Scam Sweeping Nation (Aug. 19, 2004)
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Wrong Number Investor Alert
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She's touting secret information from her "hot stock-exchange" boyfriend about a stock trading at mere pennies that's destined to hit the roof.
"It's 50 cents now, and it's going up to, like, five or six bucks this week, so get as much as you can," the woman says breezily.
Beware, listener, beware. The Securities and Exchange Commission warned yesterday that the gossipy voice mail seemingly gone astray is actually carefully designed "vice mail" designed to trick unwitting investors into buying certain stocks.
Susan F. Wyderko, director of the SEC's Office of Investor Education, said regulators have received hundreds of calls about the scheme this week alone.
SEC officials said the stock price and trading volume of the companies mentioned in the messages have risen over the past two weeks, signaling that at least some recipients of the message are acting on the phony tips. The companies focus on different industries and are based around the country. The only thing they appear to have in common is that their shares are thinly traded, changing hands infrequently because there are few buyers and sellers.
At least seven companies have been mentioned in the phone messages, including Donini Inc., Food Innovations Inc., Maui General Store Inc., and Power 3 Medical Products Inc., according to sources briefed on the scheme who spoke on the condition of anonymity because a federal investigation is ongoing.
Delaware Securities Commissioner James B. Ropp said he got an early alert about the scam when his brother, who received one of the messages, called him a week and a half ago. Ropp described the messages as "very slick . . . very believable" and said it was not surprising that some consumers had apparently fallen for the pitch.
Ropp said the companies mentioned in the telephone messages do "not necessarily" have anything to do with the fraud. "They may have no knowledge of this," he said.
