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The SEC has temporarily halted trading of Neuromama Ltd.
- honkhonkpants 10y ago"He left prison in August 2010 after being sentenced for five years for defrauding investors, in a $1.8 million scheme through misrepresentations tied to the renovation of a Las Vegas casino. The Ukrainian immigrant was sued by the SEC in the 1990s for orchestrating a $12 million penny stock scam. He was ordered to pay more than $21.6 million in disgorgement and penalties for selling unregistered securities from 1993 to 1996." Why isn't this guy on the bad actors list?
- cloudjacker 10y agoclub fed is a financial crime postdoctorate
- Animats 10y agoTrading was just halted in Neuromama (OTC:NERO), a startup with a $35 billion market cap. They have a search engine (https://neuromama.com/ https://neuromama.com/), a social network (http://vica.life/ http://vica.life/), and claim "heavy ion fusion" and oceanfront property in Mexico. The CEO got out of prison 6 years ago. WTF?
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- semi-extrinsic 10y agohttps://neuromama.com/get/web/WTF https://neuromama.com/get/web/WTF I am entirely unsure how this search engine works.
- aaronscott 10y agoI tried searching for 'pig 14' - and got back an error message that included (html removed): We're sorry... but your computer or network may be sending automated queries. To protect our users, we can't process your request right now. See https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/86640 https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/86640 Google Help for more information.
- DON1 10y agohttps://neuromama.com/get/web/pig-14 https://neuromama.com/get/web/pig-14 thats what i got
- dangrossman 10y agoIt's a PHP application proxying Google search results based on the errors and results.
- semi-extrinsic 10y agoOn my stock Android phone, all the searches just return blank pages. Are you saying it actually works on non-mobile clients?
- kornish 10y agoGetting blank pages on my MBP. So apparently not.
- asadhaider 10y agoYes, it's a Laravel PHP application just as dangrossman said. It simply fetches the Google search URL based on your query and returns the results [0]. As you can see, it's returning a Laravel exception, displaying the Google Captcha check HTML code to avoid this type of thing. [0]: http://i.imgur.com/ojwZedZ.png http://i.imgur.com/ojwZedZ.png
- codedokode 10y agoThat is a MVP.
- homero 10y agoBut you get rewards! http://fsr.neuromama.com http://fsr.neuromama.com
- revelation 10y agoWhat the hell is that story in the footer.
- SolarNet 10y agoIt reads like a serial killer's confession.
- kylehotchkiss 10y agothis made my day
- kylehotchkiss 10y agoI'm convinced there's a hidden message in this
- mirimir 10y agoMaybe someone pwned their server?
- girvo 10y agoHoly hell... what is going on! I believe it's pulled from here? http://www.eurasialasvegas.com/our-mission.html http://www.eurasialasvegas.com/our-mission.html Or re-used...
- duskwuff 10y agoSame company behind them. Both domains are registered to the same email address.
- haddr 10y agoThis thing appears on their social network too: https://www.vica.io/our-story/ https://www.vica.io/our-story/ What a creepy story
- Shanea93 10y agoI got an error while searching which contains a Laravel stack trace, in case anyone is curious what a small snapshot of their stack looks like: https://gist.githubusercontent.com/anonymous/efa644da4f2713b1d7e2eea02bcb2b69/raw/2f2255827ab3e5d9230577e4c73d52d3f6fde022/neuromama%2520error.htm https://gist.githubusercontent.com/anonymous/efa644da4f2713b...
- overcast 10y agoWhat the hell am I even looking at with neuromama?
- fuddle 10y agoTheir Android app only has 10-50 installs :0 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vica.chat https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vica.chat
- homero 10y agoWow that logo looks like a birthday banner
- thegranderson 10y agoVery helpful explanation from a thread about this on reddit (narrated from the first person perspective of the scammer): It's pretty beautiful in an illegal sort of way: So the clever short sellers borrow and sell 100,000 shares of stock at $2 each, hoping to profit when it crashes to zero. By hypothesis, there are no buyers. But we buy. We buy those 100,000 shares for $2 each, laying out $200,000. Now we own 300.1 million shares, out of 300 million outstanding. On Thursday we go to our brokers and say "you know what, we changed our minds, we want our stock back from whoever you loaned it to." So the brokers call in the short sales. The short sellers can't borrow the stock anywhere else. We own it all. So they have to close out their short sales by buying in the stock. But they can't buy the stock anywhere else either. We own it all. So they have to buy it from us. How much do we charge? Yeah, $15. Or $20 or whatever, I don't know. We can charge whatever we want. If the short sellers don't buy the stock, they're breaking the law. So they'll pay whatever we ask. They pay $20 to buy back the shares they sold us at $2, making us a $1.8 million profit. source: https://www.reddit.com/r/investing/comments/4wvlkv/a_scam_with_354b_market_cap_dafuq/d6absj0 https://www.reddit.com/r/investing/comments/4wvlkv/a_scam_wi... [edit: formatting]
- ChuckMcM 10y agoThis sounds pretty amazing but I can't figure out bindings for all the pronouns. Who are the short sellers? Who are the brokers? are they complicit? Is one of them acting as the market maker for the stock? When the con is exploded and the money gets paid back, where did it come from? The short sellers? the brokers? thin air?
- elevensies 10y agoThis is a typical short squeeze. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_squeeze https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_squeeze ) [ With the caveat that I'm far from an expert on this, I just have a collection of documents of many failed corners and very few successful corners. ] The short sellers are anyone with a negative outlook on the stock. For example, some hedge funds do 50% buying, 50% short selling, so in theory they are neutral to overall market conditions. The brokers in this case have been permitted to lend out the stock to earn extra money, the short sellers are ordinary customers of the brokers, the short sellers don't necessarily have any special relationship with the brokers. The market maker would be buying as much as selling, and not holding any position over extended time, so they don't influence this event. In theory, the short sellers have to pay up to meet their obligations.
- tetrep 10y agoWow. That social network feels like a kinda creepy way to remember someone. Seems a little too attached. Additionally, it has a store (because why not?) and I figured I would check it out because at this point I'm mildly impressed by the effort they've put forth. The store is just Amazon affiliate links.
- beedogs 10y agoSomething about a sucker being born every minute seems appropriate.
- largote 10y agoWho honestly believes this company is worth anywhere near $35B?
- harryh 10y agoA couple of suckers who got conned into buying in at that price.
- notahacker 10y agoThey're not even trying to make it not look like a scam http://investor.neuromama.com/ http://investor.neuromama.com/ I'm reminded of Cormac Herley's theory about Nigerian scammers acknowledging they're from Nigeria because they prefer to deal with people naive enough not to see that as a red flag https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/publication/why-do-nigerian-scammers-say-they-are-from-nigeria/ https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/publication/why-do-... Unlike your average Nigerian scammer, these guys also presumably had the ability to afford a web designer and someone to write copy that looked vaguely legitimate if they'd wanted to. Trouble is, investors that aren't ludicrously unsophisticated are more likely to ask awkward questions and get lawyers involved...
- ChartsNGraffs 10y agoSome poorly bounded automated trading algorithm.
- aczerepinski 10y agoThey own the rights to over 60 jazz documentaries plus a search engine and heavy ion fusion tech.
- ultrasandwich 10y agoTheir Jazz Network is so bizarre... http://investor.neuromama.com/neuromama-library-of-entertainment-assets-the-jazz-network.html http://investor.neuromama.com/neuromama-library-of-entertain...
- rhubarbquid 10y ago
- davidgerard 10y agoBloomberg's headlines are infuriatingly clickbaity these days.
- jokoon 10y agoHow so? That article is amazing, and I think the title reflects it.
- notahacker 10y agoBlatant penny stock scams /= "a $35 billion stock"
- paulddraper 10y ago...hence the halting on manipulation concerns
- syassami 10y agoFor comedic gold visit http://investor.neuromama.com/ http://investor.neuromama.com/
- TazeTSchnitzel 10y agoThere's… a 17-minute rant about Google being bad? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok-8uVR4Pa0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok-8uVR4Pa0 Note the fake NASDAQ symbol. I only watched 5 minutes of it. Interestingly, Neuromama.com does indeed return Microsoft as the top result for "computer software": https://neuromama.com/get/web/computer+software https://neuromama.com/get/web/computer+software But the rest is the same as Google.
- homero 10y agoFunny because their php app is a Google scraper
- reagan83 10y agoHere's the Neuromama Recruitment Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZhI5zRJ8zw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZhI5zRJ8zw Wow.
- Cyph0n 10y agoA 30 minute recruitment video? This belongs on /r/deepintoyoutube. Actually, I just posted it.
- kregasaurusrex 10y agoNever thought I'd see the day two of the sites I frequent most would overlap like this.
- astronautjones 10y agoThis is incredible. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hreCQlJB7bE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hreCQlJB7bE He says "adventure capitalists" more than a few times, then appears to be possessed
- chollida1 10y ago> The SEC has pushed to keep shell companies out of the hands of fraudsters, who manipulate their shares to make illegal profits through a so-called pump-and-dump scheme. So if you wondered what a shell company is, one way to get a publicly traded company is to buy the "shell" of an existing company that is already public but wound down operations. Sort of a take over of just the name, incorporation documents and exchange documents that let it list. You'd then delist and have your shares only trade OTC. This helps explain why they haven't filed any financials for the past few years. If you look at its trading history, NERO US Equity<HP GO> if you have a Bloomberg terminal, you can see that it traded a few hundred shares a day and slowly climbed up each day. This probably indicates that the shares are very tightly held. So the owners can't really cash out by selling their shares, but they can possibly use the shares as collateral. Being so tightly held also eliminates the possibility of shorting the company, though shorting any OTC symbol is always a bit sketchy.
- ElliotH 10y agoRead the (Important Disclosure) pdf at the bottom of http://investor.neuromama.com/ http://investor.neuromama.com/ - It's amazingly crazy.
- hashmymustache 10y agoHere: http://investor.neuromama.com/uploads/2/4/6/9/24695823/important-disclosure-.pdf http://investor.neuromama.com/uploads/2/4/6/9/24695823/impor... It's a 68 page, haphazardly stitched mess of documents. Can't say they're not confident in their product: From page 37: "NeuroBrowser of NeuroMama.com is the best, easiest to use, and blocks all kind of viruses and pop-outs on your screen...In 2 years the NeuroMama stock will be the most popular and will make NeuroMama shareholders and employees very, very rich. NeuroMama.com is the best Search Engine in the world."
- pplante 10y agoThe best description I can find of this "company" lies on page 37: "https://neuromama.com/ https://neuromama.com/ - Search Engine based on Artificial Technology....."
- duskwuff 10y ago"Artificial technology" is an apt way of describing it, too. It's a Google scraper. :)
- cloudjacker 10y agolmao, well the SEC is going to have to drop the investigation given that spot on disclaimer
- wwwdonohue 10y agoMy favorite: "I can provide a lot of references, who will say that I always keep my word, although on many occasions due to unforeseen circumstancesit could take longer for me to deliver on my promises."
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- tlrobinson 10y ago$35 billion market cap, but it looks like the daily volume is never more than ~$200,000...
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- IPv5 10y agoWho buys this sort of stock? Are there really enough people to make the valuation that high?
- jonah 10y agoWhat is this[1]?! "To fully understand the difference between our Business Opportunity ad and all the other business opportunity ads you've been reading, the first thing you must know is that we are offering an overflowing profit palette of business 'opportunities', not just a single business 'opportunity.'..." Plus 30 more paragraphs of similar madness. [1] http://investor.neuromama.com/licensing-territories.html http://investor.neuromama.com/licensing-territories.html
- dn95 10y agoAll their website does is scrape Google and return the results. I found this by causing an error by accident which shockingly exposes this error page: (http://i.imgur.com/w0tgNUA.png http://i.imgur.com/w0tgNUA.png)
- mintplant 10y agoWas just about to post the same. https://i.imgur.com/pSWLXIx.png https://i.imgur.com/pSWLXIx.png The rotating carousel backgrounds on their homepage are comically bad Photoshop jobs, and the logo looks like it's traveled here from the early 2000s.
- gragas 10y agoI found this on the "Special Password Protected Area for Original Baja California Investors" page: > Why would it make sense for APPLE Computers to acquire NeuroMama, Ltd. > (1) If APPLE acquired NeuroMama, Ltd. it could potentially generate $100 billion, by selling advertising, in new revenues per year within 5 years by replacing GOOGLE with Neuromama.com’s Search Engine based on Neural Technology in APPLE's browser - SAFARI. Of course, it no longer will be NeuroMama.com search engine .... it will be APPLE Search Engine. ...what?
- Cyph0n 10y ago> Of course, it no longer will be NeuroMama.com search engine .... it will be APPLE Search Engine. Of course.
- haddr 10y agoI got very nice error from their search engine, revealing a bit where they get results from :) http://pastebin.com/RnsB33Ea http://pastebin.com/RnsB33Ea
- paulpauper 10y agoThis makes no sense...OTC stocks are almost never bigger than a billion dollars. This used to be at $28 in 2012, which meant is was still worth over $20 billion but the SEC didn;t notice then. No information about this company. not even a wiki page. I think the $35 billion may be a typo and it's only $35 million. There is something missing in the reporting. Maybe it traded at a penny and went to $55 ,maybe it wound be worth billions but it never got lower than $10
- kgwgk 10y agoThere were strange things going on with the numbers of shares outstanding in 2013, I wouldn't jump to conclusions about historical prices/market-caps without double checking.
- KasianFranks 10y agoIf anyone wants the real story, let me know. I know exactly what this group is into.
- ww520 10y agoWhat's the real story? Tell us.
- themartorana 10y agoOk, I'll bite.
- tbihl 10y agoLet us know if parent delivers? (Parent will surely deliver.)
- KasianFranks 10y agoIf you want the real inside scoop, email me at kasian.franks@gmail.com
- gfaure 10y agoWould you be this Kasian Franks? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasian_Franks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasian_Franks
- KasianFranks 10y agoYes
- nmc 10y agoPage was deleted today, but archived back in 2010: https://web.archive.org/web/20101028085300/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasian_Franks https://web.archive.org/web/20101028085300/http://en.wikiped...
- gruez 10y ago>To read more about the saga of Cynk, click here. ...with no link to click on
- adamontherun 10y agoScreenshot of a search for "8 billion" on neuromama.com http://imgur.com/a/Y1Ior http://imgur.com/a/Y1Ior
- lifeisstillgood 10y ago(Sorry bout this folks - just trying to wrap my head around it) What we seem to know and the unanswered questions: - this seems to be an atrociously bad startup (their "search engine" proxies Google but can be easily tripped) - it seems to have been a genuine IPO (2000???) that then failed (see search engine) and yet the outstanding shares trade OTC (between large institutions privately - a very common method) - the scam that seems to be happening is curious (See good explanation about Eve down thread). The idea is bad scammers can trap genuine hedge funds into a short squeeze on this very rarely traded stock. But no sane hedge fund will short the stock without also buying a call option - and so it seems only insane hedge funds get ripped off here. My questions: Why on earth are these stocks still lying around and being traded OTC. This seems the sort of thing that would never get allowed on any genuine exchange (the company could barely fulfill minimum reporting requirements) Why did anyone take this as a "naked short"? Options trading is risk risk risk and people do this for a living aren't fools. Are they? Even if this got public in the dotcom boom, why is such a scammy company still allowed to operate with outstanding shares ? I mean they have only just halted trading on a company that proxies Google ... Why give the imprimatur of SEC over the past few years to such crap?
- JumpCrisscross 10y ago> no sane hedge fund will short the stock without also buying a call option Short plus a call is a put. If you can buy a call you can just buy a put. Thinly-traded stocks such as this one would not have exchange-listed options.
- PhantomGremlin 10y agoBut no sane hedge fund will short the stock without also buying a call option Bill Ackman reads this and says "Oh, shit ... you can do that? Why didn't someone tell me that before I lost about $1 billion shorting that POS Herbalife pyramid scheme?" In other words, sometimes "insane" hedge funds are run by BSDs[1] who are convinced they are the smartest guys in the room. They're so convinced that a stock is worthless that they don't bother doing something prudent like buying protective calls. And then guys like Carl Icahn buy HLF stock just for the lulz, knowing that they are giving Ackman a very painful galactic wedgie. Wall Street is definitely Adult Swim. And occasionally joker hedge funds need to be reminded of that. [1] not Berkeley, but Liar's Poker
- ipsin 10y agoWhy on earth does NASDAQ make it look so much like Neuromama (NERO) is a real NASDAQ-listed company? If I was trying to fool investors, this is the link I would use: http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/nero/stock-chart http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/nero/stock-chart
- ekiara 10y agoThat "search engine" looks like it was never really build to be used. I searched the term "blender" and got this: `ErrorException in getResults.php line 45:` https://neuromama.com/get/web/blender https://neuromama.com/get/web/blender
- partiallypro 10y agoThe Business Insider headline (original, and yes Business Insider is terrible) from today was quite funny. "This $35 billion company supposedly owns 'a clone of Amazon’ and is developing atomic fusion — and the SEC thinks something might be wrong."
- eggy 10y agoTiajuana, Mexico? Siberia? Sounds like the makings for a 'Red Dawn 2: Putin and El Chapo" where Trump is holed up with the NRA as patriotic rebels protecting Hillary, the POTUS ;) The 2012 film remake of Red Dawn made China the bad guys compared with 1984 original Red Dawn where Russia and Cuba were the bad guys. But seriously, could this be used to launder money, or the scam wouldn't allow for it based upon the setup of the short squeeze? Could money be put in the system this way and cleaned and turn a profit at the same time?
- walrus01 10y agoThis is like watching a flaming dumpster fire.
- ultrasandwich 10y agoWith the apparent gold mine of batshit footage[0][1][2][∞], horrifying failed PR stunts[4], pdfs[5], and fake products, I really, really, hope someone with the right skills picks up the documentary ball here... [0] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok-8uVR4Pa0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok-8uVR4Pa0 [1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZhI5zRJ8zw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZhI5zRJ8zw [2] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hreCQlJB7bE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hreCQlJB7bE [3] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23C_fKGuSls https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23C_fKGuSls [4] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1rbxisJGJ4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1rbxisJGJ4 [5] - https://encrypted.google.com/search?hl=en&biw=&bih=&q=site%3Aneuromama.com+pdf https://encrypted.google.com/search?hl=en&biw=&bih=&q=site%3... [∞] - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbSwch2hCQcgy-ecz1Z_guQ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbSwch2hCQcgy-ecz1Z_guQ edit: spacing
- jondubois 10y agoWow - They don't even bother actually building a realistic-looking product. Their NeuroMama search engine doesn't seem to work at all and it has pictures of (Russian-looking) priests and clowns in the background. I think this is pretty much like gambling though... Not so different from how most people deal with the NYSE or NASDAQ (most people know nothing and make decisions based entirely on hype/media). People gamble on horses and lottery, and they also gamble on stocks... I think if someone can pull this off, they deserve the money as much as any legitimate company on the NASDAQ or NYSE. A lot of these NASDAQ/NYSE companies have overinflated valuations (far beyond their real intrinsic value); it's the same thing except in this case, the intrinsic value is 0.
- ryporter 10y agoI trade this market professionally, and it is quite easy to massively elevate your stock price if you control most of the floating shares. These sorts of price run-ups happen very regularly, but, to their credit, the SEC normally stops them before they get this far. They are typically able to halt trading by the time it's worth a billion dollars, two tops. :/
- executive 10y agoNeuroMama, LTD. is a development stage company which designs and implements the Internet Platform containing all of the popular components used by majority of population. NeuroPlatform offers its users more search relevancy, privacy and FSR - Frequent Search Rewards. NeuroPlatform consists of NeuroMama.com search engine, based on Neural Technology (Artificial Intelligence), secure e-mail service - Neuro-Mail, NeuroBrowser with a special version for children, NeuroMania social network with multitude of features such as Video management system, marketplace and auction, TviMama.com Video On-Demand and Live Broadcasting Infrastructure, functioning as the next generation Internet Content Distribution Platform (CDP). The NeuroZone online shopping mall is in implementation stage that will offer its users and vendors unique online shopping experiences, provide its e-commerce merchants with ability for instant integration to NeuroZone platform, and reward users for shopping at NeuroZone merchants. The flagship store for NeuroZone will be NeuroMania Department Store with large variety of products sold under the NeuroBrand such as NeuroPad, NeuroPhone, NeuroBook, etc. The company is currently in the process of establishing its presence in China to sell advertising and to establish Joint Ventures with manufacturers in China in order to deliver large profit margins in NeuroMania online store and brick and mortar store locations as part of its licensing program. NeuroMama, Ltd. is in the process of researching, designing and implementing its licensing program to accelerate growth of revenues worldwide. NeuroMama, Ltd. is currently implementing revenue generating infrastructure to sell advertising on its Internet Platform. http://seekingalpha.com/symbol/NERO http://seekingalpha.com/symbol/NERO
- singularity2001 10y agoTL;DR (DontRead) Some con artist gets expelled from US after spending 6 years in prison for investment fraud. Tries new pump and dump gig from Mexico called NeuroMama, deliberately hilariously crazy stupid. Issues some 650M shares, sells 200 for 50$, probably to himself, gets stopped by SEC. Holds the remaining 650M-200 shares, that's where the trillion dollar figure comes from. Time to stop calling virtual shares 'market cap' or even 'worth'! That's pretty old and boring, the 'new' attempted twist is called short squeeze, see and thank @thegranderson for explanation. Shun the Neuromama meme. This gives a whole new dimension to the word 'pump and dump con artist': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1rbxisJGJ4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1rbxisJGJ4
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- dzlobin 10y agohttp://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=124531379 http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_i... This forum post has links to some of their financials which are just comical.
- DON1 10y agoWHY WOULD THEY JUST SUSPEND THE STOCK TRADING, WHAT IS THE ILEGALITY HERE? THAT THEIR STOCK TRADES AT $56DLLS AND THEY HAVE LOW VOLUME? OR THAT THEY HAVE NOT FILED THEIR FINANCIAL DOCUMENTS? I HAVE READ ON ONE OF THEIR CONTRACTS THAT THEY PERFECTLY STATE THAT THEIR COMPANIE USES INVESTORS CAPITAL SEED TO FUND PROJECTS. WELL LETS JUST WAIT AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS ON THE 26TH OF THIS MONTH