I haven't received any stock touts for a very long time. This racket used to be a Blue Chip (so to speak) for spammers, but if my inboxes are any evidence, they have virtually disappeared. Maybe my providers have gotten good at filtering it out completely, or maybe some arrests (Ralsky, etc.) have scared everyone else off, or maybe the current state of the equity markets has made people a bit more wary (I'd like to think the latter).

Has this stuff vanished from anyone else's mail, or is it just me?

-- rick

Me neither.

Less money (so cash itself is good to have), sure, ordinary people will be more wary about stock gambles - their confidence in the whole market is shot, let alone the wildest and most risky part of it. But I don't think that's necessarily what killed the 'Pump and Dumps' (the lack of suckers) so quickly. There's always going to be some gamblers, the risk is what they live for and more risk is never going to deter them (quite the opposite, probably). P&Ds just seemed to die the instant the main boards fell, didn't they? I guess the pinksheet bandits just lost confidence too and they're 'redundant' like so many others. After all, it's a deal where they have to put money in to start with - and *they* are not gamblers, not at all.