If news that 11 spammers have been indicted over pump-and-dump stock schemes doesn’t make you even more skeptical of financial tips from strangers, maybe the following story will.

I received this message from TC through Zecco this morning:

Hi, new to investing and was wondering if you would give some tips which would be a good newsletter to subscribe to for my short and long term trading? Is this robot Bull**** or does it work. Thanks for your time.

The “robot” TC is describing is advertised as a Google contextual ad showing at Zecco (pictured atop) and a clickthru leads to the site along the right DayTradingCoach.com (sorry, no link).

I had never heard of this program but am immediately skeptical of any deal which is presented like this on a web page. It’s in the whole get rich quick format which you see on thousands of different one page pitches. Too many sites which use this format have gotten rich off selling information that can usually be found with some specific internet searches, not rich from the information itself.

Being a geeky guy, I was intrigued if I could find this “robot” for sale anywhere. Can you actually buy the “robot?” It doesn’t appear from my searches that you can, but hey, you can buy a newsletter.

Surprise, surprise, all that Michael and Carl want is your email address and name. There’s a “don’t worry we won’t sell your name and address” disclaimer at the bottom of the page. I decided on TC’s behalf to enter in a specially tagged email address and see what their email autoresponder sent my way.

The first email was a validation link from somebody named “Jens Clever.” This isn’t the Beav’s mom (June Cleaver), and was coming from the following address:

Trading Coach LLC
100 Wall Street, New York, NY 10005, USA

Before clicking the validation I would be giving this organization permission to send me information, I wanted to sniff around a bit more. I was on a mission to find this stock robot promised in the Google served ad, not be sent in a circle buying into newsletter offers. I perform some Google searches for “Trading Coach LLC” and see what others on the web were saying. I was led to the site spamstocktrader.com which tracks a fictitious portfolio of buying and selling spam stocks. Now check out the email disclaimer reposted by spamstocktrader (emphasis mine):

You are hereby advised that Daytradingcoach.com / Trading Coach LLC / Jens Clever is receiving a cash fee of two thousand and thirty two dollars from the company shown above (or its agent) as compensation for the distribution of this email.

$2,032 for distributing information about a stock trade in an email. TC, are you paying attention to this? You don’t need to be a farmer to smell this manure. No thanks, Jens Clever, I passed on giving you my email address so you could send me stock tips that you were being paid to put in emails.

The spider web of email finance newsletters
Now back to the original web page. Page two was another web page going on and on about a (second?) newsletter. Imagine that, another page with another sales spiel for, yes, a newsletter selling hot stock tips.

But where is this amazing “robot” that the ad teased? Apparently the “robot” is just used by the people who write these emails? Is it a “robot” that must only output information when money is scanned into it?

Sorry there is no bot for sale, only a newsletter with “468 spots left” so act quick! I wonder if the next prospect who comes along sees 468 spots left too or is this some random number for each prospect? Are you kidding? A newsletter with a limited number of subscribers? I’ve never heard of any email newsletter that was only allowed to a limited number of subscribers, have you? Digital limited, I guess, just don’t expect any of those subscribers to forward to their friends and family.

And then another request for a name and email, only this time no disclaimer that my name and email address wouldn’t be whored out:

Still only interested in the robot, not subscribing to some newsletter. I passed on filling out the second email. Ironically enough, Michael’s office is in downtown Seattle “across from City Hall” according to the web page at the following address:

Global Marketing Company LTD
93 S. Jackson Street #56595
Seattle, WASHINGTON 98104-2818, UNITED STATES

Oddly, the phone number offered isn’t a Seattle-based 206 area code number, it’s a number from the UK. . Here’s a link to a Google hybrid map of the area or embed below for those with readers that allow IFRAME:

View Larger Map

Michael offers availability of his physical address to the lifetime subscribers of his newsletter. Pay only $47 and you can stop by and see him during office hours any time. I should go down to 93 S. Jackson Street #56595 and see what’s actually there. Being it’s Sunday, it would have to be a work day. Maybe someday when I’m down that direction I’ll drop in and see if Michael is available.

Moral of the story for TC and others
I’m sure by now TC who I’ll be pointing to this post in a response will see what you need to do with advertisements and offers: verify the information and sources are credible. Perform Google searches and see what others are saying about the service. Due diligence.

I’m not suggesting there aren’t any stock newsletters or that the ones mentioned above might occasionally offer stocks you can actually make money by following their tips but you have to ask yourself if those tips were so great overall, so irresistibly financially attractive, why would they be selling the information? Wouldn’t they would be using those tips to make themselves a fortune and not be focusing on the very profitable business of getting paid to share these stocks in paid newsletters?

In our ongoing stock competition between my wife and I, both our portfolios are available for the world to see for zero, nadda, nothing, not even one penny. Open, transparent and including dollar amounts, # of shares when we bought and when we sold, and even notes about each trade. I’m far and away no stock expert and don’t write or sell newsletters offering stock tips, but I’m happy to offer three common sense guidelines for those new to stock investing: research, research, research.

Yes, that’s the same word repeated, but it’s the truth. TC, and friendly readers, if I was to trust somebody online that I didn’t know with making financial decisions, I’d look for a similar level of transparency about what stocks are being bought and sold. I’d examine the history and compare that to the information being shared in his/her/their newsletter. I’d perform Google searches and see what others who bought these newsletters are saying and how transparent they’re being about their own results from following the advice. Research, research, research.

Let’s close by going back to TC’s questions at the top of this post. I don’t subscribe to any paid stock newsletters so I’m not a good source to ask for what the best ones out there are for short term and/or long term trading. I do most my research through the search engines, analyzing companies including both past and recent news articles. In some cases my direct customer experience will compel me to buy or sell a stock.

As for if the “robot” mentioned in the ad is BS? Draw your own conclusions from the information available. Speaking purely for myself, if I could buy this bot somewhere and it wasn’t prohibitively expensive, I’d try it out and share the results — for free — not in any paid newsletter.

Maybe some readers have had positive experiences with paid newsletters? I understand Fool.com has a paid newsletter. At least that’s a name that’s been around awhile, TC, but no clue as to how good or bad the performance has been there. Just be careful out there. That’s the best advice any stranger or friend can give you involving any financial tip on the web.

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