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 ??

lw sorry but you must be swayed by someones elses opinion if you use internet,brokers report or newspaper or mag tips even though the final descion is yours after reading the info you have found.

Andy re 7 of 17 Perhaps its the saying birds of a feather etc, if they all practice with holding there numbers.

Sarkee,

I don't think the FSA will intervene, because these are bucket shop type brokers moving on high risk shares to unsuspecting punters, and therefore provide an outlet for the market to dump rubbish into.

It does make you wonder what damage is done by punters being fleeced, and leaving the market foreverafter a bad experieince, but I guess nobody cares!


One thing that I found annoying weas that I gave a private mobile number to City Equities, and they only had that number.

All the other boiler rooms that started to ring me always rang on that number!

It has been suggested in the press that City Equities sell your number onto other boiler rooms, and they have denied this.

They even sent a letter to all their customers denying the practice existed!

I would like to know how my private number came to the attention of about 20 boiler rooms located in Holland, Belgium, Spain, and various other locations!

I didn't give it to them, I wonder who did?

ANDY IT WORKS JUST CUT THE CALL OF IF IT IS WITHELD BUT NEVER GIVE A LANDLINE NUMBER YOU WILL GET NO PEACE LEAVE BLANK ON THE CARD.most withheld numbers are from people that do not want you to know who is calling if you dont answer the phone or cut them of. it will work only problem with doing this if you know someone you want to speak to that also uses a withheld number.

Andy Interesting info re C E as I received a number of unexplained calls from all sorts of overseas companies & most recently being telecoms. Only way I found to deal with them is to answer then go & make a cup of tea or walk around the garden by the time I pick the phone up again they have gone.

Given all of this bad experience, so far, then perhaps the only possible route is via Brussels and EU laws to effect some action if the FSA is so impotent.

Woodie,

Yes I stopped answering withheld number calls, and checking the answerphone afterwards.

I now have a new number, partly because of the boiler room calls, and partly because I was offered a good number when I switched contracts.



sarkee,

leave them hanging on the line for ages, good idea!

Yes I think it's time for Brussels to get involved here, FSA won't because the MM's need a clearing house, and these guys provide it.

Also, they ring about "pre IPO" shares, and I noted one, SLOGOLD, that has never listed anywhere, yet I received so many calls about this from all sorts of people.

This illustrates another problem, recommending UNLISTED shares.

If they don't list, you can't trade them!

And then there are the "brokers" recommending US stocks.

They are always on the OTCBB!

Apparently you cannot sell an OTCBB stock bought in Europe for 1 YEAR!

They won't tell you this!

Until you try and sell!

And once you have the certificate, where will you take it to sell?

Your local bank won't touch it, and I would imagine it would have to be sent to the US to deal, and then wait weeks for the money.

sarkee,

SLOGOLD are still not listed on any exchange!


http://www.slogoldresources.com/co_info/shareholder.htm


And I was told by so many boiler rooms they would list early 2005!



And this sums up the dangers of boiler rooms nicely, read the last few paragraphs!


http://www.slogoldresources.com/co_info/bulletin.htm

Nice to see our story getting some reaction. Some things to think about: How do these companies reach the conclusion that they should be recommending the stocks they offer to clients? Which comes first - the research justifying the recommendation or the firm's purchase of the stock? And how often does the promise to get you inside the spread amount to anything that couldn't be achieved by a normal broker?

If anyone else would like to go public with their experiences, please let me know.

Shares ed

Hoodless Brennan - Pages 20/21 Issue No. 50.

jlacey/shares ed

REACTION

Sally Smith, who mistakenly placed her faith in Hoodless Brennan, has all my sympathy.

Since purchase my small portfolio reveals the following:-

Dinkie Heel - Down 30%
Europasia Education - Down 21%
Hartest Holdings - Down 55%
Reefton Mining - Down 38%
Physiomics - Down 75%
Pentagon Protection - Down 22%

I could add some more but the list would be endless.

Can you recommend a decent/proper/normal stockbroker?

Hoodless Brennan - Pages 20/21 Issue No. 50.

jlacey/shares ed

REACTION

Sally Smith, who mistakenly placed her faith in Hoodless Brennan, has all my sympathy.

Since purchase my small portfolio reveals the following:-

Dinkie Heel - Down 30%
Europasia Education - Down 21%
Hartest Holdings - Down 55%
Reefton Mining - Down 38%
Physiomics - Down 75%
Pentagon Protection - Down 22%

I could add some more but the list would be endless.

Can you recommend a decent/proper/normal stockbroker?

Interesting the list of HB off loaded toilet paper shares (at a healthy profit) seems to be getting longer by the day and has there been any response from the FSA, no except for the sound of silence as usual !!

Perhaps our champion "SHARES MAGAZINE" will have enough on going new material to start to a weekly column to keep Joe Public up todate.

"Caveat emptor" is very true BUT only on a level playing field not one that slopes in one direction only !!

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 ??