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[Guru Dudette]

SEC warns of 'wrong number' scam By Kathie O'Donnell, CBS MarketWatch Aug. 19, 2004 BOSTON (CBS.MW) -- The Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday warned investors to beware of a "wrong number" stock scam sweeping the nation involving a female caller who leaves phony stock tips. Voice mail messages left on home answering machines say the price of certain small, thinly traded stocks are poised to shoot up, the SEC said. Regulators believe the messages are part of a "pump and dump" stock scheme designed to drive up the share prices so the scammers can sell, sticking victims with losses. "The breezy, intimate messages sound as if a female caller mistakenly believes she has dialed a girlfriend and is confiding inside information she has learned from 'that hot stock exchange guy I'm dating,'" the SEC said in a release. The SEC said it's concerned because prices of the stocks involved have risen; suggesting people are heeding the messages and buying shares. An investor who asked not to be identified played a tape of one of the messages for CBS MarketWatch. The caller in the tape identified a company called Maui General Store (MAUG: news, chart, profile) as being ready to surge. Shares of Maui, which hit a 52-week high of $1.20 on Aug. 9, plummeted 17 cents, or 31 percent, Thursday to 38 cents after the SEC made its announcement. The agency said it's received hundreds of complaints from investors across the country about the voice mails in recent days.