Mail like this needs to be dumped in the trashcan outside on your way back from your mailbox.  We’re here to take money, not have our money taken!

You’re smarter than getting scammed by get-rich fast schemes. Especially this type of scam: the pump and dump.  Scam mail like this often have these characteristics:

• Obscure stocks no one’s ever hard of
• Stocks you can’t research yourself online and be informed about
• BIG BOLD COLOR WORDS highlighting how much you could make
• Looks like a school report gone bad: tons of highlighting, and colored ink and markings

As Tim Sykes explained in this interview, the strategy of the con artist (person/company) behind these scams is con you like a desperate parent at Christmas time.  The first buy the stock of a small company no serious investor cares about.  Then the con artist suckers in victims with mail like this, so the victims are desperate and buys the stock for more than the con artist bought it for.  Like desperate parents at Christmas time who overpays for the hottest toy because they can’t get their hands on it otherwise, victims are tricked into doing the same.  But in the end, unlike stocks of companies who are doing well, these stocks essentially have little or no value.  What does that mean?  There will be no other investors interested in the stock to buy it from the victims.  The victims are left holding worthless stock that they thought was worth a lot, just because the con artist told them the stock was worth a lot.

Watch out for these scams online too!  Where it is even easier to run these scams.

But this doesn’t mean the stock market itself is a scam.  Far from it.  Many people make a living investing and trading in the market.  The key is remembering that stock investing and trading is a business.  You need to treat it like a business with a business strategy.  Whether your business is selling hot dogs or selling clothes, you have to first buy the raw material or inventory, then hopefully sell it higher for a profit.  Your business strategy would also have backup plans, like clearance sales. When the clothes in your store aren’t selling well, you’d want to at least sell the clothes for cheaper instead of losing everything you originally paid for the clothes.  This way, you’ll at least have some money to buy more clothes you think would sell better.

The key to avoiding stock scams and subscribe to a stock advice service is:

• Service based on a strategy
• Verifiable track record.  How well has this strategy worked?
• How consistent is the strategy?
• how much can you expect to lose with the strategy?

The goal is to make money in the stock market, day in and day out, or week and week out.  Just like any other business.

Opportunities in any single stock comes and goes.  But a good strategy lets you take advantage of many stocks, when the stocks are going up, when the stocks are going down, and when the stocks just sit there.  We list many investing and trading coaches as well as investment advice services that are focused on good, consistent strategies.

Example Pictures of Stock Fraud Scam mail.  Did you get one today?!

Note: We show 2 separate mails here, just to show you how similar they look.  We removed the actual stock picks and mail sender.  It is not important who sent it but that you recognize the signs of a stock scam mail.  Con artist groups like this often change their company name or address and start all over, so just recognizing the name won’t matter.  Maybe the same con artist group sent both of these.  We don’t know.