The 5 page write up by Simon Keane (starts on P20) of the current edition of Shares Mag is very revealing & only goes to confirm IMHO that if you swim with sharkes you will get eaten.

The seperate editorial on P6 was also very informative & helpful although stating one should be careful, it does seem to be the law of the jungle out there (kill or be killed), which is not how they present themselves, when one is cold called.

How long will it be before FSA wakes up & takes some real action against them remains to be seen, as this firm has had a very chequered past to say the least.

Q.How many people have been on the receiving end of the telephone transcript (published in the report) from this firm ?? it seems to ring a bell in my mind

There were 6 pages in total on this one controversial firm of brokers how many others have been caught in their web & lost capital in the process ??

sarkee,

What Hoodless, City Equities, and Pacific Securities are doing is complying with the law as it stands, which prevents them cold calling without you first inviting them to call you, which you unwittingly do if you take up their offer of a "free" report.

I think even this is only in place to give the illusion that the FSA are doing their job, rather than serve any real purpose, as the boiler rooms either ring from an office based outside the UK, such as Spain, Amsterdam, Brussels etc, or circumvent the rule easily by offering reports on popular shares and utilising the small print to obtain an invite by default.

If the FSA really cared about the small private investor, they could legislate to prevent this IMO.

Andy yes agree thats why I call it a very large slope in ONE direction on the playing field and its not in the direction of Joe Public.

As for the FSA they will not do anything until they are forced to either by public opinion and or media attention and or there political masters.

sarkee, davidcornish

We can take up the cause of anyone where we get a specific complaint like Sally Smith's, backed up by all the documentation. Then it's a case of the facts speaking for themselves. The FSA says it's OK for anyone to be cold-called as long as once they've said 'no' the caller doesn't go on to pressure them, which seems pretty unfair to me. There are dozens of good brokers out there providing proper advisory relationships - I think the APCIMS website has a list.

Jilacey I am afraid that FSA type of response is typical, perhaps they have latent agenda ?.
With regards to firms that have a bad track record why does'nt the FSA monitor them on a day to day bases. Plus contact directly the clients of these types of firms to see if they are being dealt with in a correct, fair & ethical manner ?

No doubt the FSA will come up with all sorts of excuses why they cannot, so why are they the Policeman but will not police in a fair way, it appears to be biased against Jo Public. If firms given a licence to operate in this arena knew if they stepped out of line by 1mm they would be brought to book & perhaps closed down & publicly named & shamed it may help them to focus on running a squeaky clean business from day one.

The FSA is totally out of touch IMO with the general public in so many different areas but then again who is policing the policeman ??

Back to broking firms has anyone come across a situation where a share is heavily promoted to Private Clients afterwards its discovered the broking firm is also a Market Maker in that stock ?? BTW After all of the stock is off loaded the share price then falls off a cliff & guess what the said MM is offering the lowest price on the bid & the highest price on the offer !

No don't tell me thats OK with the regulatory authority

Is that code to say its OK to screw Joe Public ???

sarkee

Perversely, the more regulations there are, the more firms can demonstrate that they are compliant. Hence all the risk warnings plastered across the websites and literature. I can guarantee that they are all able to demonstrate to the FSA's satisfaction watertight compliance procedures and chinese walls to avoid internal conflicts of interest. But that doesn't mean the clients won't suffer. In some ways it would be better to have less of this so-called investor protection and more public awareness that people could well lose a lot of money.

jlacey In some ways one can agree with less means more, however with this controversial firm they have a proven bad track track record which seems from the SHARES Magazine reports is going to get even longer in the very near future.

Why then are they still allowed a full licence to operate ???

The FSA seems reluctant to issue any type of public rebuke though media and to more importantly re assure Joe Public they are on top of the situation, which clearly they are not.

It only confirms other peoples views as well as my own that the so called level playing field is very biased to one side. I wonder how long it will be before the EU's Brussels laws are invoked to force the FSA to deal with this firm once and for all & put them out of business plus all of those associated with them.

jlacey,

Good to see you participating here, adds interest to the thread IMO.

I read the article in Shares with great interest, as I have a hang up about boiler room brokers cold calling unwitting punters, and thought the article will serve as a useful warning for the future.

IMHO Shares Magazine has improved this year, is interesting, well laid out, and informative, and I hope this will continue into 2006.

More coverage for AIM stocks, seperate pages for the mining and oil Prospector, and initiate a page per edition to cover OFEX would be my suggestions for consideration.

I wish you all a Merry Xmas and a Happy and prosperous 2006!

Some years ago, height of the tech boom, I responded to Hoodless B phone call and bought approx 1200 worth of Viking Intl, since changed to Pan African Resources, worth now approx the same amount. Hoodless Brennan hold the shares and when I rang up to check they said it's OK, if I want to sell just ring them. Does this sound OK to any of the more knowledgeable? I'm not too bothered about selling them, just a bit worried about HB in case I want to.

John1943 re PAF are you aware that HB are also MM's for this stock ? Normal market size is 10k and trading seems to be very infrequent. Results out this morning showing a further losses & no trades so far plus yesterday there was a private placing of 7m @ 3p.

IMHO looks like it will be at least 2 or more years before any mine is in production which may well require further funding before hand.

With regards to anything info coming from HB treat as if they are being economical with the truth always do your own research & make your own judgement. Perhaps you may be better served by opening an account with a good broker & transfering the stock to them

BTW No doubt after you purchased these shares the SP fell off of a cliff ??

John1943 re PAF Only 4 trades in total of just over 128K, no change in SP perhaps they would have been better to have delayed the results a couple of more weeks until after the holiday when they may have been more interest in the figures.

The SP may well retrace in the new year if there is no newsflow.

Have you spoken to HB since the results to find out if they have changed their opinion ???

beware guys they are currently touting New Millenium

They did likewise about 3 years ago on same company when they were almost 7p...and are currently trading at under a penny!!!!!!!

Maybe shorting their tips would be safer eh!!!!!!!!

The other way of course is to let them rattle on to your mobile at 20p per minute once every few weeks and they will soon realise that it is costing shedloads when you are not a 'good prospect'

BEWARE GUYS!!!!!!!!!!!!

pb

piston broke Thanks for the warning & hopefully enough people are & will be made aware of what this firm are up to.

I see that NML issued 1 BILLION new shares at 0.5p a week or so ago to raise 5m

Its a great pity that the FSA does not take a more proactive role rather than possibly a reluctant reactive role after Joe Public has been well & truly screwed.

Any guesses how soon the SP will fall off of cliff ?

City Equities rang me this week with River Diamonds, but only at the offer price.

Can't quite see the point of this, as if I wanted to buy the shares I could do so with a regular broker and probably they'd get me inside the spread... most of the time etrade or td waterhouse do, anyway.

So what advantage is there to having a City Equities account? Unless the 'advice' is really good and worth having. Most of the time it just seems to be a 50-50 chance whether the share they're tipping goes up or down.

mechanicman IF it was only a 50% chance of UP or down; from what I have seen most of the entities they have touted suddenly dive southwards after the bulk of the shares have been off loaded to Joe Public.

If I see either of these firms names appear with any equity I steer well clear because I know what will happen next..

Piston,

Are you referring to HB for this comment on NML please?

If not, which broker?

When were you offered these, and can you remember the price?

Sarkee is correct, they have issued 1 BILLION new shares recently,
@ 0.5p, and I presume these are what are being offered here, just checking because I have followed the NML story for 18 months now.

_______________________________________

piston broke - 23 Dec 2005 11:02 - 29 of 32
beware guys they are currently touting New Millenium

Andy thx re HB , I was trying to highlight to every one that its all smoke & mirrors with this shower. Don't get sucked in as all they want is your capital nothing else they could not care less what type of company it is except for how much they can stitch you up for for..

Needless to say the FSA just sits back & does sweet FA, I wonder how long that is going to last once the EU starts to name & shame these w***kers in the new year

Andy...wasnt HB ...itwas one of the security companies referred to above and was about 3 days ago...was only referred to as being just under a penny share

piston,

That must be pacific then??? it's not a crime to say the name on here

keep your hands on your wallet!!!


NML are NOT a good prospect in my view, not even at 1p....

You have to ask why, if the shares are such a bargain, don't they simply hold onto them until the price rises, and make more money????

bucket shop brokers and boiler rooms are only in it for THEMSELVES!!!

aimtrader well done you hit the nail on the head; however people have very short memorys & thats what these various devious shysters rely on to peddle there crap. IF only the FSA & for that matter LSE would put a stop to them before they were able to dump there crap on punters.

IMHO its good to keep this thread going just as a constant everyday reminder of the sharks that are out there waiting to fleece investors.

So if anyone hears of them trying to dump more worthless crap PLEASE post the info alert here so that as many people as possible are forewarned what they are trying to p & d.......

Hopefully IF the FSA can read they will start to understand what this type of lowlife are up to............well we can all live in hope........

Merry Xmas to everyone.......

sarkee,

Absolutely!

Does anyone know which broker is pushing NML out? City Equities or Pacific Securities?

And does anyone know the price?

I presume 1p.