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WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has suspended the stock trading of three companies that
haven't provided adequate information about themselves to the public, making them susceptible to spam-based stock scams, the agency said.
The SEC on Thursday suspended trading for Alliance Transcription Services (ticker symbol: ATSS), Prime Petroleum Group (PPGU)
and T.W. Christian (TWCI), all traded on the Pink Sheets over-the-counter stock service. The trading
suspensions will last 10 days, the SEC said in a news release.
The companies were formerly known as Strategy X, Pinnacle Development and Xraymedia, respectively. Each
changed its name Aug. 14, and purports to have a new business, the SEC said. The companies are susceptible to spam stock
promotions because they have inadequately disclosed their assets, business operations or management, their current financial
condition or financing arrangements involving the issuance of the companies' shares, the SEC said.
The trading suspensions are part of an SEC antispam initiative launched in March that has targeted the profit potential for
so-called pump and dump stock scams. Since then, spam-related complaints to the SEC's online complaint center have dropped
significantly.
In February, the SEC received nearly 167,000 spam complaints, but in September, it received about 68,000 complaints.
"The SEC is moving aggressively against stock market spam that has been clogging our e-mail in-boxes for too long," SEC
Chairman Christopher Cox said in a statement. A reported 30% drop in financial spam means "fewer investors are getting
ripped off," he added.
A Symantec Internet Security Threat Report, released Sept. 17, credited the SEC effort with the 30% drop. The
SEC efforts "limited the profitability of this type of spam," Symantec said.
In July, the SEC filed securities-fraud charges against two Texas men who allegedly hijacked computers nationwide to send
millions of spam e-mails and cheat investors out of more than US$4.6 million. In March, the SEC suspended trading for 35
companies that allegedly benefited from spam e-mail campaigns to hype their stocks.
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