BM> Anyone see the little expose in Business Sunday (Channel 9)
BM> re the $7,000 investment software?

Yeah. That was the second coverage of it too from memory, cant
remember where the previous one was.

BM> Some mob has just set up on the Gold Coast in pretty nice offices

Yeah, one way to avoid quite a few shonks is to just ignore any offers
from there |-)

BM> and has made a TV promo flogging their new magic secret to
BM> painless, almost- instant riches.  Unbelieveable claims made:
BM> The speaker (some TV news reader - not Melbourne)

Sydney, ABC TV. Ex news reader, retired.

BM> claimed to have turned $2000 into $70000 in a year.

Yeah, absolutely classic example of the old adage about ultra shonks,
'if it sounds too good to be true, thats coz it is'. If it was that easy
the banks could have done that to get out of their pathetic fiascos |-)

BM> No effort needed - just do what the computer says. But the trading
BM> claim was essentially bulldust.  The claim was based on a simulated
BM> trading history for a selected period, but this was not mentioned
BM> in the promo.  No disclaimers.  No warnings.

True, but then do you seriously expect the biggest spivs to say
'I should warn you, I am a convicted con man from way back' ? |-)

BM> Best part of the item was the interview with the "technical manager"
BM> - who obviously wished the earth would open up and swallow him.
BM> He basically disowned the "marketing people" in his own outfit.

He looked like the instigating spiv to me. He was quite adamant that it
was perfectly valid to use the simulated runs over old data to justify
the $2K->$70K claim.

BM> The shonks are alive and well it seems.  So are the mugs who will
BM> part with $7000 for some more snake oil.

Precisely the same ones that those sharks have always fed off.

BM> Plus you have to wonder about the morality of the speaker in the promo.

Dunno, maybe he is to stupid to realise how silly the claim was.
There was another example relatively recently where some big 'names'
got conned themselves into adding that aura stuff and you could see
the rats rushing off the ship as quick as they could once the gory
detail of the scam started to come out. Cant quite remember what it
was, its on the tip of my tongue. Some large scale business stuff.
Corse Compass was a bit like that too.

BM> My only worry is that the price seems aimed at the financial
BM> or institutional industry, who can afford that kind of money.

I doubt it. It appears to be the usual ploy, the argument that if
you have a very high price some dorks find that more convincing
that it cant be a scam. One of the odder aspects of human nature.

BM> Are they that gullible?

Probably, they certainly got taken to the cleaners by the likes of
Bond and Skase and co. In fact towards the end they were all falling
over themselves to pour money on them.

Bloody bizarre in many ways that such staid bankers could come quite so
glorious unstuck. A very graphic commentary on human psychology again IMO.

BM> Makes you worry a bit about the quality of their work.

And the stock market and following property boom and bust didnt ? |-)

Lemmings is the analogy that most readily comes to mind.

BM> Or will they use this new magic tool in their turn to con naive investors?

Spivs dont let other spivs get a look in on their action usually.

BM> Usually these clowns creep out of the rocks at the blowoff phase in bull
BM> markets.  This lot are a bit early it seems.  Or maybe they are just dumb.

Or maybe we are in the blowoff phase of a bull market.

--- PQWK202