I think the ET community would be better served if you keep focusing your thoughts on this forum...the last thing a millionaire Nigerian needs is Viagra. Just continue to delete those e-mails. Once they got you..they won't let go.
I do get those mails too. I seriously want to know where they got my email from, im paranoid about giving out my mail-address, and those are pretty much the only spam i get. Im suspecting it was one of my brokers.. They are good at passing the spam-filter too.
By the subjects I get, I don't know if they are penny stocks, drugs, or porn... "This one is ready to explode!" "This is HUGE!" "VGRA on sale now!" I guess I'll never know for sure. I don't open em.
I saw on another forum that someone actually does well out of these through a little system he uses...
This a clever simple scam. You spam thousands of emails with buy recommendations on various volatile stocks. Some will win, then you follow up the winning emails with more picks stating how well the last pick did (you discard the losers).. A recipient on a winning email streak may take the bait and subscribe to your service.
That's not how it works. The messages are distributed by spammers with ties to microcap "investor relations" firms that are compensated (in cash and restricted stock) by the company to pump their stock. Jonathan Lebed (remember him?) became a millionaire by doing this. It's obviously a shady business because of the conflict of interest and the fact that none of these guys are RIAs.
One of them got my email address from my WSJ subscription. I don't know whether there was a computer breakin or some employee or advertising partner sold them the list.
What I would really like is for these press release firms to stop taking business from pumpers (mostly out of Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton) who are pushing a penny stock but make casual mention of a few real stocks so that the message winds up in the trading platforms' news lists for those stocks.