Heritage Foundation Sponsors Stock Scam
Heritage Foundation Sponsors Stock Scam
Last night, the conservative website Townhall.com sent a paid message to its reader entitled “How Often Does Life Offer You a Second Chance.” In it, a man named Mark Skousen promised huge returns from his can’t miss stock tip. Here’s Skousen’s pitch:
In the tech sector, bargains have just about disappeared. This stock is one of the few exceptions. I see it moving way higher. In fact, I expect it to double and split 2 for 1. This extraordinary stock should be in your portfolio right now. Everything you need to know is in a Special Report I’ve just written: “The Company that Will Change the World: The Next Explosive Tech Stock.”
The email directs people to http://cf.heritage.org/rd.cfm?id=599 for his “free” report. In other words, this scam is hosted directly by the Heritage Foundation. (No wonder Heritage is pushing so hard to funnel Social Security money into private investment accounts.)
The report, as you might have guessed, is not actually free. You can only get it if you subscribe to an expensive newsletter written by Skousen, presumably filled with more of these can’t miss stock tips. Skousen promises that if you are dissatisfied with the newsletter he’ll refund you money. No word if he’ll refund your money after you blow your savings based on one of his outrageous predictions.
The Security and Exchange Commission publication “Invest Wisely: Advice From Your Securities Industry Regulators” warns consumers to be alert for:
Representations of spectacular profit, such as, “Your money will double in six months.” Remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!
Sounds like they are describing Skousen to a tee. To complain about the efforts of Skousen and Heritage to mislead investors use this online form.
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As much as I dislike Heritage, I think saying this is “hosted directly” by them overstates things quite a bit. rd.cfm seems to be their generic ReDirect page, used for redirects to all manner of other sites that I assume are sponsors/advertisers/etc. You can verify this by using the URL above and changing the number at the end; it’s actually quite fascinating to see what kinds of places you end up. There is clearly some sort of relationship between Heritage and these various (mostly) scamsters, but it’s only a weak one.
June 1st, 2005 at 1:02 pmHeritage spun off Townhall.com several months ago. There are some server-sharing agreements temporarily in place, but that’s about it.
See http://www.townhall.com/editor/
June 1st, 2005 at 1:40 pmAndrew:
Why are you allowing your server space to support stock scams? Is this part of the Heritage mission? Do you feel comfortable “temporarily” enabling a scam?
June 1st, 2005 at 2:28 pmKickbacks?
June 1st, 2005 at 3:19 pmPeople need to think for themselves and research their own invesments, using every available avenue. There are many wolves out there lurking, and the old saying “A fool and his money is soon parted” is never more true when a person leaps into a “too good to be true” investment.
Like Mark Twain said, “I’m not so much interested in the return on my investment as I am the return OF my investment”.
I should note that Twain lost his a** on most of his investments and was nearly in the poorhouse for much of his life, but I think he was ahead at the end.
Wolves, Cons & ripoffs come in both Dem & GOP clothing. The GOP has no monopoly on ripping people off.
June 1st, 2005 at 4:14 pmBS: True, but beside any point made in the post. Yes, people should be wary when investing. Doesn’t mean fraud shouldn’t be exposed and prosecuted.
As for your attempt at moral equivalence, I defy you to name a left-of-center foundation or think tank that’s been associated with this. The GOP and the right may not have a monopoly on ripping people off, but they sure do have a leading share of the market.
June 1st, 2005 at 4:49 pmEr, I mean associated with this sort of thing, i.e. a scam comparable to this one. Stoopid fingers, getting ahead of my brain….
June 1st, 2005 at 4:52 pmClinton lied. Does that count?
June 1st, 2005 at 5:03 pmBuckshot is right. All government is evil. you statists should pack up and leave for Russia.
June 1st, 2005 at 5:16 pmGary,
Certainly you don’t think I’m condoning such fraud and theft?
On the “conservative scandal” question, I assure you they will accept your money no matter how far left you lean. To tie their treachery to American conservatives is akin to tying being white to being a KKK member. Or being gay to being a child molester.
Left wing groups are continuously mired in scandal. Unions, for example have ripped their members off and sold them down the river since their very beginnings. Many lefty charities have pillaged and looted and lied and squandered.
Often the hollyweird elite are involved in these big fund-raising galas, where they pay celebs wads of money to come soak themselves in publicity while preaching to the masses to “conserve” and “help the poor” etc etc, while themselves wallowing in excess to the point of nausea.
Like I said, the right has no monopoly on scandal or theft.
June 1st, 2005 at 6:34 pmExcuse me, Buckshot. There are no non-whites in the KKK. The majority of pedophiles are heterosexual. I was going to ask what level of education you have attained, then I realized your rhetoric renders that question irrelevant. Perhaps it’s better to ask what, exactly, is your point?
June 1st, 2005 at 6:46 pmWhy you thought you needed to tell me the KKK is exclusively white organization is a mystery. Perhaps you missed the point.
Similarly, your comment on gays, pedophiles, & heterosexuals is irrelevant and confused. You missed the point again.
With two strikes against you, your third comment regarding my education (or lack therof) is meaningless.
Strike three.
June 2nd, 2005 at 1:29 am“Unions, for example have ripped their members off and sold them down the river since their very beginnings. Many lefty charities have pillaged and looted and lied and squandered.”
Oh yeah….Buckshot pines for the good ‘ole days of the Triangle Shirt Waist fire, the Ludlow massacre, etc.
Yeah right, Buckshit….businesses never harm people. Only unions do. Perhaps you’d enjoe working for Nike at one of their fine facilities in Thailand or China?
I really wish there was a benevolent god, because he (she) would most certainly do us all a favor and stike down the mindless idiots like you.
Strike four.
June 2nd, 2005 at 3:49 amBuckshot’s twisted logic, (I use the term “logic” loosely), is complementary to his twisted character and notions. His discovery of the obvious, “power easily corrupts people” is matched only by these earth-shattering analyses: not all white people are in the KKK, but all members of the KKK are white. Also, all homosexuals are not pedophiles, but some homosexuals (read most) are pedophiles. Your higher education, or rather, the waste of the government’s money on trying to educate you, did prove to be irrelevant and meaningless. If, in fact, you managed to graduate high school. And if you did, I’m sure it was subsidized by the state, not as a sholarship for academic excellence, but financial aid to the general population, in a failed attempt by the “welfare state” to counter the ignorance and prejudice you happily retain and share with us daily at this site. You do so because you are still too ignorant to know any better. Along with your “faux folksy manner” and “aryan american anecdotes” you are an excellent argument for means testing of some type when it comes to government handouts in the area of educatuion. A college education is wasted on some, and clearly, in this country of vast opportunity provided by the “evil state” even the corrupt and ignorant, like you and your average politician can be financially successful without it.
June 2nd, 2005 at 8:20 amBuckshot’s bizarre logic, is a fitting complement to his bizarre character and notions.
His unremarkable discovery of the obvious, “power easily corrupts people” is matched only by these earth-shattering analyses: not all white people are in the KKK, but all members of the KKK are white.
Also, all homosexuals are not pedophiles, but some homosexuals (read most) are pedophiles. Your higher education, or rather, the waste of the government’s money on trying to educate you, did prove to be irrelevant and meaningless. If, in fact, you managed to graduate high school. And if you did, I’m sure it was subsidized by the state, not as a sholarship for academic excellence, but financial aid to the general population, in a failed attempt by the “welfare state” to counter the ignorance and prejudice you happily retain and share with us daily at this site.
You do so because you are still too ignorant to know any better. Along with your “faux folksy manner” and “aryan american anecdotes” you are an excellent argument for means testing of some type when it comes to government handouts in the area of education. A college education is wasted on some, and clearly, in this country of vast opportunity provided by the “evil state” even the corrupt and ignorant, like you and your average politician can be financially successful without it.
June 2nd, 2005 at 8:26 amBuckshot’s bizarre logic, is a fitting complement to his bizarre character and notions.
His unremarkable discovery of the obvious, “power easily corrupts people” is matched only by these earth-shattering analyses: not all white people are in the KKK, but all members of the KKK are white.
Also, all homosexuals are not pedophiles, but some homosexuals (read most) are pedophiles. Your higher education, or rather, the waste of the government’s money on trying to educate you, did prove to be irrelevant and meaningless. If, in fact, you managed to graduate high school. And if you did, I’m sure it was subsidized by the state, not as a sholarship for academic excellence, but financial aid to the general population, in a failed attempt by the “welfare state” to counter the ignorance and prejudice you happily retain and share with us daily at this site.
You do so because you are still too ignorant to know any better. Along with your “faux folksy manner” and “aryan american anecdotes” you are an excellent argument for means testing of some type when it comes to government handouts in the area of education. A college education is wasted on some, and clearly, in this country of vast opportunity provided by the “evil state” even the corrupt and ignorant, like you and your average politician can be financially successful without it.
June 2nd, 2005 at 8:42 amBuckshot’s bizarre logic, is a fitting complement to his bizarre character and notions.
June 2nd, 2005 at 8:42 amAt least the guy knows where to find a bunch of gullible suckers. Ann Coulter has a bridge in Baghdad she want to sell you.
June 2nd, 2005 at 8:46 amYou sound bitter, Roger. Did you first notice the Adam’s apple before or after s/he sold you that “bridge”?
June 2nd, 2005 at 9:15 amIt may (or may not) be just me, but you have to wonder if supporters of denationalisation are perhaps using the “wealth enhancement seminar” device as an agency of “stealth” propaganda for “winning of hearts and minds” over to a denationalised system.
(Howbeit by way of “front” companies, lest any suspicions be aroused in Certain Suspicious Circles.)
And as if that weren’t bad enough … it seems as if His Fraudulency may be secretly targeting the working poor and those employed via targeted jobs-assistance schemes as among the first to be subject to denationalised State Social Security.
Why, you may ask?
Conservative Zealots and True Believers are bound to invoke the inevitable arguments about the Lower Classes “being in clear need for empowerment towards greater self-reliance and personal responsibility***after years of chronic and helpless dependency on failed and failing State systems of welfare and Social Security.”
Yeah, right….
June 2nd, 2005 at 9:34 amActually, I was refering to the stock scam guy using the townhall.com mailing list to find potential pigeons gullible enough to fall for his hype. If you were a scam artist looking for people who would believe any kind of crap, what better place to find them than the online home of Andy Coulter.
June 2nd, 2005 at 9:39 amMy mistake, Roger. I take Buckshot’s advice, even if he doesn’t follow it himself. I don’t gamble. But the sotck market isn’t gambling, is it?
June 2nd, 2005 at 9:54 amSJS:
C’mon, DJIA! Baby needs a new pair of shoes!
June 2nd, 2005 at 6:02 pmMark Skousen is a “rightwing” investment guru who has spent a lifetime selling investment strategies and “insider” information via what we used to call “far right” outlets.
He has written investing books and reports promoted by various rightwing “hard money” flacks. Got his start around the time Howard Ruff was riding high hustling gold as the end-all investment.
His father was an FBI guy who made a few bucks in his retirement years chasing commies and writing books the John Birch Society promoted along with other righty groups of the 60s and 70s.
The entire Skousen clan is living proof that if freedom can be saved it can be saved at a profit.
June 2nd, 2005 at 7:14 pmAt the heart of this advertisement/stock scam is Skousen counting on the gullibility of those blinded by the right to throw away their money. In my home region of North Carolina, a man was recently caught after defrauding people at mostly evangelical churches into “investing” in a Ponzi scheme that supposedly involved wild profits via pay phones and pre-paid phone cards. Indeed, Skousen is a classic example of what will occur if Bushyboy gets his Social Security “reform.” Even more damning will be the legitimate securities firms that will thrive on the unsuspecting masses who will think they are making 5 or 6 percent in a bond investment before the managment fees and the insidious 12b-1 fees are assessed. As a result, hard-working Ma and Pa Republican are actually only making 2 to 3 percent on their “hard-earned wages.” I can’t remember if it was Mencken or Barnum who said “No one has ever gone broke underestimating the intelligence of the average person.” Of course, the last two presidential elections only confirm the quote.
June 2nd, 2005 at 7:27 pmNo one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people
People can easily be persuaded to accept the most inferior ideas or useless products; attributed to H. L. Mencken.
Barnum said something about a sucker being born every minute. But… ain’t it all the truth.
June 2nd, 2005 at 7:57 pmhttp://cf.heritage.org/rd.cfm?id=366 will take you to another version of Skousen’s “fantastic offer.”
June 3rd, 2005 at 1:47 amDid anybody actually take him up on his “free” offer and discover which Silicon Valley company is going to skyrocket your portfolio to financial outer-space? I’m willing to do my own due-dillegence and without Skousen’s help did quite nicely on Samsung, and still own it, thank you very much. He gives just enough information so that it will take some sleuthing to determine which company he’s talking about. I might buy some if it looks good after I do my due dilligence. And do it without paying Skousen for his “free” tip.
June 21st, 2005 at 9:12 amGreat site. I like it very much! Wonderful design in a complex with professionally picked up information leaves very pleasant impression. You have worked well! Toodle-oo, It is something unforgettable!
January 3rd, 2006 at 1:43 pmHowdie, from Tom McNamara, you are the best! your site is very pleasant and very cool! Thanks a lot!!! So long, it is possible to hang at such a site all the days long
January 4th, 2006 at 11:58 am