RE: Coinmarketcap is a BEAST! Coinmarketcap is a MONSTER! Now in Top 500 Traffic Ranking.

~~BitConnect~~ reminds me a bit of a penny-stock scam called "SpongeTech" (feel free to google it if you're so inclined).

At one point, you saw advertisements for SpongeTech all over the place (there's a nice mention of it in the below video)...

...they even had their logo patched onto the Cincinnati Bengals' (US professional football team) jerseys during their pre-season practices, which happened to be filmed for the very popular television series Hard Knocks. The following snippet (found HERE), details a bit about SpongeTech's ballsy advertising effort.

ANN ARBOR, MI, September 11, 2009 – With the NFL’s decision this year to allow branding on practice jerseys, the most recent edition of HBO’s Hard Knocks—a five-week, behind-the-scenes look into life at NFL training camps—proved to be a highly successful platform for the newly signed Cincinnati Bengals’ sponsor SpongeTech Delivery Systems, Inc. During the five episodes, SpongeTech jersey logos “popped” visually, collecting more than $350,000 of comparable television exposure value.

According to research conducted by Joyce Julius & Associates, Inc., which specializes in measuring the scope of sponsorships across all forms of media, the bright yellow SpongeTech jersey patches appeared clear and in-focus for a total of four minutes, 33 seconds (4:33).

This linked article (the source of the below snippet) explains in detail what ultimately went down with SpongeTech.

On May 5, 2010, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) brought an action against Spongetech Delivery Systems, Inc. (“SPNG”), including CEO Michael Metter, CFO and secretary Steven Moskowitz, and certain other Spongetech officers and employees, for engaging in a scheme to increase demand for publicly traded stock in Spongetech by using false public statements to heighten awareness of the stock and company, and selling the artificially inflated shares through affiliated entities in unregistered securities transactions. These affiliated entities include RM Enterprises International, Inc., the majority shareholder of Spongetech. RM Enterprises was controlled by Metter and Moskowitz.

Spongetech was what’s known in Pennyland as a “story stock.” In 2008 and 2009 it was one of the most heavily touted OTC stocks, attracting thousands of investors ready to defend it at all costs. The company’s fans pointed proudly to the fact that SPNG, unlike many penny issuers, had a product—soap-filled sponges—that could be purchased at some convenience stores and major retailers.

[fast forward a bit into the article]

As a result, the R&R was adopted in its entirety, resulting in Michael Metter being held jointly and severally liable for: (1) disgorgement in the amount of $52,236,995.00; (2) prejudgment interest based on the IRS rate from May 5, 2010 to the date of entry of this judgment; and (3) a civil penalty of $6,133,540.00. The prejudgment interest assessed amounted to $9,693,568.75. So Metter is on the hook for a little more than $68 million.

In a parallel criminal case, Steven Moskowitz pled guilty in May 2011; Metter in January 2013. Metter received a sentence of five years probation. Moskowitz received three years probation. Moskowitz claimed he’d spent years helping investigators untangle the complicated case. He was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $12.7 million.

Trading in Spongetech was suspended by the SEC on October 5, 2009. Two weeks later, SPNG reopened on the infamous Grey Market. It continues to trade there today, as a zombie ticker unattached to any active company or business.

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kevinwong (76) 7 years ago

~~BitConnect~~ is advertising pretty aggressively on that website :S

$0.15

1 vote

jamesbrown (62) 7 years ago (edited)

$1.31

kevinwong (76) 7 years ago (edited)

Very good info to learn from. In the wild2west of crypto, no code and process transparency, no go..

$0.00

jamesbrown (62) 7 years ago

Good rules to go by and I'm with you on both.

As far as penny-stocks go, my #1 rule is don't touch them. Stay far, far away from them.

daudimitch (65) 7 years ago

Hahahaha... I like the fact that you put a line right through Bitconnect, you know how things can turn out if you mention it outright here...lol

$0.30

"Volatility software" is quite suspicious..