Borrowing from the tactics of stock market con artists, the web
sites appear to be investment opportunities offering tremendous
financial gains. Anyone who tries to invest is instead led to a
page that explains the hoax and gives advice on avoiding scams.
The SEC launched the first of the fake scam sites,
mcwhortle.com, earlier this month, then issued a spoof press
release to promote it. The press release, seemingly issued by
McWhortle Enterprises Inc., boasted that SEC had "pre- approved"
the fictitious company's initial public offering. In reality, the
SEC does not "pre-approve" IPOs.
The press release was distributed by PR Newswire to hundreds of
web sites and internet portals on 25th January as part of the SEC
project. As a result, the McWhortle site received more than 150,000
hits in three days.
The McWhortle site purports to be that of McWhortle Enterprises,
Inc., a fictitious company that claims to have developed a
handheld, battery-powered biohazard detection device that "emits an
audible beep and flashes when in the presence of all known
biohazards." The site solicits investments in the company that, in
three months, will be "worth more than 400 times the initial
investment."
The SEC has not yet revealed the identities of its other fake
sites.
