The stock spammers have a new dodge, which is to send out embedded images that advertise a website. The website — ourtopgainers.com — calls itself American Stock Report and is slathered with flags and eagles (just to make the point clear). It invites you to 'download' a free report, but their notion of download is a little strange: you actually have to fill out a form with your physical and email address, after which they will mail you their report.

Or so they claim: I haven't actually tried it to see what happens, but my guess is that you could expect to see a lot more email touting whichever penny stocks the pump-and-dump complex is trying to shift this week.

I doubt this would work as a way of promoting a single stock, but it might help them build a list of suckers who are willing to buy a worthless penny-stock on the say-so of a complete stranger (the site, by the way, is hosted in China, which always inspires confidence). This probably makes sense, as by mailing to a selected list of self-declared clueless investors they are likely to get a lot more 'bites' for a lot less spam.

The actual spammers contracted to send out mails promoting the site seem to be the same ones who are already engaged in individual stock spams: the spams are stylistically very similar to other recent spams promoting Irwin Resources Inc (IWRS.PK).

One other piece of stock spam news: I received some stock spam promoting In Touch Media (ITOU.OB). When I looked the company up at Yahoo!, the name of the company president seemed very familiar, but I had to use Google to remind myself who she was. Yep, she's that Laura Betterly. Now is this a case of the biter bit, or is she up to her old tricks?