Agoracom

The following is an actual alert generated by AGORACOM for Canadian Small-Cap CEO’s. It is not a prank. Please read the message below and pass it on to colleagues. We have uncovered a financing scam taking place in Toronto, which may very well be taking place in other Canadian cities as well.

It has come to our attention that at least 8 Canadian Small-Cap CEO’s in the resources sector have become actual or potential victims of a scam.  There are probably many more, as response to this alert grows everyday.

THE SCAM

CEO’s are contacted under the auspices of a massive financing from a private high-net worth investor that wished to remain anonymous until meeting with the company in person.

A meeting is arranged at the Exchange Tower (or 20 Bay Street), where each of the CEO’s were taken to an unmarked suite. The “investor” suffers some kind of a mishap at the last second and can not attend the meeting. In the meantime, attendees of the meeting are engaged in a poker game and invite the client to sit down and play a high-stakes poker game.

CEO’s that refuse to participate are faced with high-pressure tactics to coerce their participation. Without being specific, we can verify that over $30,000 has been scammed so far.

We do not believe this is a coincidence and are now warning all of our clients and colleagues to stay away from any such invitation to meet undisclosed investors at the Exchange Tower, 20 Bay Street or any other location. If an investor is serious about financing your company, ask them to meet at your offices.

This is not unique to AGORACOM clients, nor do we believe it is unique to Toronto. As such, please forward this message to all of your colleagues and peers as soon as possible, including media contacts. We need to get this message out as fast as possible.

If you have been a victim of this scam, please advise us as soon as possible, as we are considering the involvement of the RCMP.

UPDATE: We received numerous phone calls from clients and non-clients within minutes of sending out the message. Here are the highlights:

• It looks like 20 Bay Street is now another location being used by the scammers.

• One person remembers a similar scam taking place years ago but can’t believe they have the guts to pull it off in the Exchange Tower today.

• Another CEO advised the scammers that he was bringing along his IR person to the meeting. The scammers asked him to come alone but the CEO insisted. The scammers canceled the meeting the next day.

• Another CEO was propositioned but advised he did not require financing at this time.

• Another CEO accepted the invitation and met with the group. The meeting took place at 20 Bay Street. Walked into the room and a game was taking place with $100 bills in a suitcase on top of the table. While they waited for the investor, the scammer that arranged the meeting joined the table and began playing. Within a couple of minutes he received a phone call and asked the CEO to “play my hand”. CEO said he didn’t want to be responsible for his money. Scammer said “no problem”. Within 10 minutes he was up $1,000. The scammer came back to the room and thanked the CEO. Gave him $500 as a “thank-you” and asked him to play along with them. Within a few hands, CEO was up $1,500. CEO got up to leave as he knew something was up. They asked him to play a couple of more hands. Next hand he was dealt a full-house. Rules of the game required holder of pairs to double the pot. He now knew this was a scam and folded his hand, giving back the entire $1,500. They offered to give him IOU but he left quickly. He had won 80% of the hands until that point.

UPDATE #2: Just received e-mail from a CEO that was contemplating meeting with the scammers on Wednesday. Now that he knows who they are, he cancelled. Have to love the speed of Web 2.0!

UPDATE #3: Just received another call from someone that received a call from the scammers. Looks like they are still going strong.

Regards,
George

Good morning to you all. Please find enclosed a summary of the breaking small-cap and micro-cap financial news we highlighted on our TV show this morning. It’s March 31st and we’ve found 7 great press releases and stock halts from both sides of the border to report on at the open.  Another great day for small-cap and micro-cap financial news.

If you are new to the show, it is a daily, fast-paced, edgy report that we put out at or before the open everyday that strictly reports on the best small cap and micro cap news of the day in 3-5 minutes. You can watch AGORACOM TV right from our home page .

If you miss an episode or want to search for your company in our archive, you can visit our industry leading Small-Cap Podcast site at any time:

If you want to subscribe to our Small-Cap RSS Feed and download our podcast everyday via iTunes, or your favourite podcatcher, just use the following:

As always, don’t forget to visit the AGORACOM Marketplace where we list compelling summaries for over 85 great small-cap and micro-cap companies that you can sort by exchange and industry to suit your personal investing tastes.

TODAY’S SMALL-CAP AND MICRO-CAP BREAKING FINANCIAL NEWS BEFORE THE OPEN

Our daily show focuses on content over form so that you can get profitable information into your hands as fast as possible. The same holds true for these entries in our small-cap, micro-cap news blog, where I simply cut and paste my TV notes for your benefit, without any editing, so don’t give me a hard time!

Now, onto our show notes for the day.

** Denotes an AGORACOM Client. AGORACOM TV Only Reports News From AGORACOM Clients That Meets The Same Newsworthy Threshold Of All Other Press Releases.

• China North East Petroleum - OTC BB:CNEH $2.35
• Huifeng Bio - OTC BB:HFGB $0.75
• FirstFlight - OTC BB:FFLT $0.36
• ECOtality - OTC BB:ETLY $0.208
• JEMTEC - TSX-V:JTC $1.19
• Stellar Pharmaceuticals - TSX-V:SLX, OTC BB:SLXCF $0.40
• Orko Silver - TSX-V:OK $1.98

Good evening to you all. As most of you know, AGORACOM was once again a proud sponsor of the PDAC International Convention. This is the world’s biggest mining and exploration conference, with over 18,000 delegates from all over the world.

In addition to the PDAC’s greatest hospitality suite event ever (see: Invitation + Video + Photos) , we also found time to conduct great business. One thing we did was once again survey attendees over the entire 4 days in order to better understand their online research habits and favourite metals/minerals. (View 2007 Survey Results Here).

With more than 650 investors surveyed, we were once again able to extract some very valuable information. The results will have different implications for each of you depending on your core commodity and whether or not you have an online IR strategy.

As expected, I’ve added my own commentary following each of the questions but welcome your feedback via posting your comments at the end of the post.

Without further adieu, here are the results:

QUESTION #1 - Which Metal/Mineral Are You Most Bullish On?

• Gold (54%)
• Silver (12.5%)
• Nickel (8.8%)
• Uranium (7.7%)
• Diamonds (6.6%)
• Copper (5.8%)
• Molybdenum (4.6%)

QUESTION #2 - Do You Prefer Small or Large-Cap Resource Companies?

• Small-Cap (79%)
• Large-Cap (21%)

Big change here. Last year, it was ~ 88 / 12. Either investors are looking up the ladder, or more large-cap people are coming by the AGORACOM booth to find small-cap investments.

QUESTION #3 - What Percentage Of Your Research Into New Stocks Is Done Online?

• 100% of Research - (17.6%)
• 90% of Research - (23.4%)
• 75% of Research - (21.7%)
• 50% of Research - (19.6%)
• < 50% of Research - (17%)

After a little further tabulation, we can conclude that the web accounts for 69% of all research into all new investments. Still think online investor relations and marketing isn’t important? If you want to take a look at more supporting data that I’ve reported on, please review the following headlines.

QUESTION #4 - Would You Like To Participate In Private Placements Of TSX-V Resource Companies?

• Yes - 56.5%
• No - 43.5%

Retail investors obviously have an appetite for participating in private placements. AGORACOM is now taking this a step further by building a database via our very own private placement opportunities initiative. If you would like access to our database for a future financing, please let us know.

QUESTION #5 - Do You Use Discussion Forums For Information and/or Research?

• Yes - 54.4%
• No - 45.6%

Two comments here:

First, small-cap CEO’s and IRO’s need to pay close attention to this number. Though most of you ignore them by saying “I don’t read forums”, the fact of the matter is that 55% of your current and prospective investors use them for information and research. Thus, either you take control of your message, or somebody else will.

Second - and more importantly - 80% of investors that don’t currently use discussion forums would use them if quality control measures were implemented. As such, the true percentage of investors that participate or want to use discussion forums is actually closer to 90%.

Conclusion - If 90% of your current or prospective investors want a community that they can use for information, collaboration and research - give it to them! Just look at how it has helped Noront Resources communicate with their investor base.

Question #6 - If You Have Used Stockhouse, Do You Click On Their Ads?

• Never - 53.8%
• Rarely - 26.1%
• Sometimes - 16.7%
• Often - 3.4%

Assume we are extremely conflicted here, so I won’t provide any commentary on these figures. If you are a Stockhouse advertiser, you probably want to pay close attention to them.

CONCLUSION

The importance of the web in achieving your IR goals simply can’t be overstated. If you think a website alone is sufficient, you are wrong and need to read this report in order to avoid wasting more valuable time.

Investors are using the web to research and discuss their current or prospective investments. They are dissecting your fundamentals, collaborating about your future, watching videos, sharing photos and making decisions about whether to buy, sell or hold your stock.

You have an incredible, cost-efficient opportunity to be a part of that process and significantly impact the future of your company for years to come. Feed your audience with the best information possible, ask them questions, listen to their feedback and create a connection with an ever increasing number of investors that will pay you perpetual dividends.

If you are not a significant part of that ecosystem, you are doing your company a great disservice and will inevitably be left behind the unstoppable growth and habits of online investors.

Regards,
George

Good morning to you all. Please find enclosed a summary of the breaking small-cap and micro-cap financial news we highlighted on our TV show this morning. It’s March 28th and we’ve found 5 great press releases and stock halts from both sides of the border to report on at the open.  Another great day for small-cap and micro-cap financial news.

If you are new to the show, it is a daily, fast-paced, edgy report that we put out at or before the open everyday that strictly reports on the best small cap and micro cap news of the day in 3-5 minutes. You can watch AGORACOM TV right from our home page .

If you miss an episode or want to search for your company in our archive, you can visit our industry leading Small-Cap Podcast site at any time:

If you want to subscribe to our Small-Cap RSS Feed and download our podcast everyday via iTunes, or your favourite podcatcher, just use the following:

As always, don’t forget to visit the AGORACOM Marketplace where we list compelling summaries for over 85 great small-cap and micro-cap companies that you can sort by exchange and industry to suit your personal investing tastes.

TODAY’S SMALL-CAP AND MICRO-CAP BREAKING FINANCIAL NEWS BEFORE THE OPEN

Our daily show focuses on content over form so that you can get profitable information into your hands as fast as possible. The same holds true for these entries in our small-cap, micro-cap news blog, where I simply cut and paste my TV notes for your benefit, without any editing, so don’t give me a hard time!

Now, onto our show notes for the day.

** Denotes an AGORACOM Client. AGORACOM TV Only Reports News From AGORACOM Clients That Meets The Same Newsworthy Threshold Of All Other Press Releases.

• China Ritar Power - OTC BB:CRTP $2.70
• China Agritech - OTC BB:CAGC $2.55
• Direct Insite Corp - OTC BB:DIRI $1.60
• Merrex Gold - TSX-V:MXI $0.52
• Geoinformatics - TSX-V:GXL $0.225

I’m very proud to announce that one of our longest and best supporting clients, Avalon Ventures, rang the bell and opened the TSX markets today. Avalon traded on the TSX Venture (VSE in the old days) for 13 years but officially graduated to the TSX on February 28.

They are up on the front page of the TSX.com but probably only for the day, so I took the liberty of posting the picture here for everybody. We also have video of the event that will be coming in over the next couple of days. I’ll post it at that time.

Congratulations to Don Bubar, Avalon’s President & CEO, as well as, his entire team. Don is the star of the show for piloting the company through rough market conditions a few years back - and now ending up on the big board.

During his speech, Don was also gracious enough to thank his management team and supporters of the Company during the resource bear market years. A class act.

Congratulations to everybody that attended at the invitation of Don for their support over the years. We look forward to more great things out of Avalon in the years to come.

For those of you that are new to the Avalon Ventures story, do yourself a favour and take a closer look by visiting their HUB or website.

Avalon Ventures Ltd. is a Canadian junior mineral exploration and development company with a primary focus on the rare metals and minerals that are in increasing demand for environmentally-beneficial high technology applications. These include lithium, tantalum, cesium, beryllium, indium, gallium, rare earth elements (“REE”) such as neodymium and terbium and rare minerals such as calcium feldspar.

UPDATE: We now have 2 videos from the ceremony. One video contains the opening remarks from both Don Bubar and TSX representatives. The second video is a quick interview with me and Don in front of the TSX stock board with the Avalon logo behind us. Both of the videos can be found here.

Regards,
George

Good morning to you all. Please find enclosed a summary of the breaking small-cap and micro-cap financial news we highlighted on our TV show this morning. It’s March 27th and we’ve found 4 great press releases and stock halts from both sides of the border to report on at the open.  Another great day for small-cap and micro-cap financial news.

If you are new to the show, it is a daily, fast-paced, edgy report that we put out at or before the open everyday that strictly reports on the best small cap and micro cap news of the day in 3-5 minutes. You can watch AGORACOM TV right from our home page .

If you miss an episode or want to search for your company in our archive, you can visit our industry leading Small-Cap Podcast site at any time:

If you want to subscribe to our Small-Cap RSS Feed and download our podcast everyday via iTunes, or your favourite podcatcher, just use the following:

As always, don’t forget to visit the AGORACOM Marketplace where we list compelling summaries for over 85 great small-cap and micro-cap companies that you can sort by exchange and industry to suit your personal investing tastes.

TODAY’S SMALL-CAP AND MICRO-CAP BREAKING FINANCIAL NEWS BEFORE THE OPEN

Our daily show focuses on content over form so that you can get profitable information into your hands as fast as possible. The same holds true for these entries in our small-cap, micro-cap news blog, where I simply cut and paste my TV notes for your benefit, without any editing, so don’t give me a hard time!

Now, onto our show notes for the day.

** Denotes an AGORACOM Client. AGORACOM TV Only Reports News From AGORACOM Clients That Meets The Same Newsworthy Threshold Of All Other Press Releases.

• Golden Arrow - TSX-V:GRG, FSE:GAC $0.57
• TurboSonic - OTC BB:TSTA $0.65
• Brazilian Diamonds - TSX:BDY Halted
• St Genevieve Resources - CNQ:SGVL Halted

Good morning to you all. Please find enclosed a summary of the breaking small-cap and micro-cap financial news we highlighted on our TV show this morning. It’s March 26th and we’ve found 6 great press releases and stock halts from both sides of the border to report on at the open.  Another great day for small-cap and micro-cap financial news.

If you are new to the show, it is a daily, fast-paced, edgy report that we put out at or before the open everyday that strictly reports on the best small cap and micro cap news of the day in 3-5 minutes. You can watch AGORACOM TV right from our home page .

If you miss an episode or want to search for your company in our archive, you can visit our industry leading Small-Cap Podcast site at any time:

If you want to subscribe to our Small-Cap RSS Feed and download our podcast everyday via iTunes, or your favourite podcatcher, just use the following:

As always, don’t forget to visit the AGORACOM Marketplace where we list compelling summaries for over 85 great small-cap and micro-cap companies that you can sort by exchange and industry to suit your personal investing tastes.

TODAY’S SMALL-CAP AND MICRO-CAP BREAKING FINANCIAL NEWS BEFORE THE OPEN

Our daily show focuses on content over form so that you can get profitable information into your hands as fast as possible. The same holds true for these entries in our small-cap, micro-cap news blog, where I simply cut and paste my TV notes for your benefit, without any editing, so don’t give me a hard time!

Now, onto our show notes for the day.

** Denotes an AGORACOM Client. AGORACOM TV Only Reports News From AGORACOM Clients That Meets The Same Newsworthy Threshold Of All Other Press Releases.

• Serengeti Resources - TSX-V:SIR $0.58
• Eloro Resources - TSX-V:ELO $0.26
• Diversified Industries - TSX-V:DVS $0.26
• Andina Minerals - TSX-V:ADM $3.64
• Emergent Group - OTC BB:EMGP $3.25
• Red Hill Energy - TSX-V:RH $0.63

A loud round of applause please to the SEC for suspending trading in 3 more companies that haven’t adequately disclosed information to investors and have been the subject of both spam e-mail campaigns and promotional videos on YouTube.

The action warrants even further commendation when you consider the SEC probably has its hands full with major Wall Street problems related to the sub-prime debacle.

This isn’t the first time we’ve applauded the SEC for taking action on this very important issue that we are very passionate about ourselves. We consider stock/fax/mail spam a scourge on the industry because it inundates investors with unwanted solicitations, while also hurting the reputation of the small and micro-cap markets.

HIGHLIGHTS OF SEC PRESS RELEASE

The SEC issued a press release with the full details but here are the highlights:

1] The SEC identified the three companies as:

• NeoTactix Corp. (NTCX - OTCBB)

• Graystone Park Enterprises Inc. (GPKE - Pink Sheets) and

• Younger America Inc. (YNGR - Pink Sheets)

2] Trading in the three companies’ shares has been suspended for 10 business days and won’t resume until April 4.

3] “The videos often repeat information in the companies’ press releases and are posted to coincide with traditional spam e-mail campaigns.”

4] Each of the companies “inadequately disclosed its assets, business operations and financial condition.”

SEC ANTI-SPAM INITIATIVE HAS NETTED 50 COMPANIES, PROMOTERS, SPAMMERS AND INSIDERS

The SEC used the press release to also bring the public up to speed on the effectiveness of its Anti-Spam Initiative. You’ll be happy to know that more than 50 companies have had trading in their securities suspended and the SEC has brought several enforcement actions against the perpetrators behind these companies.

The Result? Spam complaints are down 68% in just one year, from 167,000 to 54,000. Like me, I’m sure you’ve also seen a drastic reduction in the amount of stock spam in your daily inbox (thank god).

CONCLUSION

It’s nice to know that complaints aren’t going into some black hole and collecting cobwebs. The SEC is obviously taking this matter very seriously, so you should do all you can to assist them and eliminate this scourge on our markets once and for all. If you have a complaint, make sure to send it to: enforcement@sec.gov

Regards,
George

UPDATE: Footnoted.Org (a great blog that reports on the fine print footnotes in SEC filings) has some more details about the video hostess and company behind this latest SEC press release. Interesting stuff.

Good morning to you all. Please find enclosed a summary of the breaking small-cap and micro-cap financial news we highlighted on our TV show this morning. It’s March 25th and we’ve found 6 great press releases and stock halts from both sides of the border to report on at the open.  Another great day for small-cap and micro-cap financial news.

If you are new to the show, it is a daily, fast-paced, edgy report that we put out at or before the open everyday that strictly reports on the best small cap and micro cap news of the day in 3-5 minutes. You can watch AGORACOM TV right from our home page .

If you miss an episode or want to search for your company in our archive, you can visit our industry leading Small-Cap Podcast site at any time:

If you want to subscribe to our Small-Cap RSS Feed and download our podcast everyday via iTunes, or your favourite podcatcher, just use the following:

As always, don’t forget to visit the AGORACOM Marketplace where we list compelling summaries for over 85 great small-cap and micro-cap companies that you can sort by exchange and industry to suit your personal investing tastes.

TODAY’S SMALL-CAP AND MICRO-CAP BREAKING FINANCIAL NEWS BEFORE THE OPEN

Our daily show focuses on content over form so that you can get profitable information into your hands as fast as possible. The same holds true for these entries in our small-cap, micro-cap news blog, where I simply cut and paste my TV notes for your benefit, without any editing, so don’t give me a hard time!

Now, onto our show notes for the day.

** Denotes an AGORACOM Client. AGORACOM TV Only Reports News From AGORACOM Clients That Meets The Same Newsworthy Threshold Of All Other Press Releases.

• Kana Software - OTC BB:KANA $1.35
• Helio Resource - TSX-V:HRC $0.90
• Conmed Health Management - OTC BB:CHHM $1.30
• Remote Dynamics - OTC BB:RDYM $0.008
• Vendtek - TSX-V:VSI $0.95
• First Nickel - TSX:FNI $0.48

Good morning to you all. Please find enclosed a summary of the breaking small-cap and micro-cap financial news we highlighted on our TV show this morning. It’s March 24th and we’ve found 2 great press releases and stock halts from both sides of the border to report on at the open.  Another great day for small-cap and micro-cap financial news.

If you are new to the show, it is a daily, fast-paced, edgy report that we put out at or before the open everyday that strictly reports on the best small cap and micro cap news of the day in 3-5 minutes. You can watch AGORACOM TV right from our home page .

If you miss an episode or want to search for your company in our archive, you can visit our industry leading Small-Cap Podcast site at any time:

If you want to subscribe to our Small-Cap RSS Feed and download our podcast everyday via iTunes, or your favourite podcatcher, just use the following:

As always, don’t forget to visit the AGORACOM Marketplace where we list compelling summaries for over 85 great small-cap and micro-cap companies that you can sort by exchange and industry to suit your personal investing tastes.

TODAY’S SMALL-CAP AND MICRO-CAP BREAKING FINANCIAL NEWS BEFORE THE OPEN

Our daily show focuses on content over form so that you can get profitable information into your hands as fast as possible. The same holds true for these entries in our small-cap, micro-cap news blog, where I simply cut and paste my TV notes for your benefit, without any editing, so don’t give me a hard time!

Now, onto our show notes for the day.

** Denotes an AGORACOM Client. AGORACOM TV Only Reports News From AGORACOM Clients That Meets The Same Newsworthy Threshold Of All Other Press Releases.

• Bellhaven Copper and Gold - TSX-V:BHV $0.60
• China Display Technologies - OTC BB:CDYT $3.00