Investment Scam

My friend Walter told me last night that there was a scam in the 1950s where a bad guy would mail out 1,000 postcards with a stock prediction. 500 would say that GM stock would rise that week, and 500 said it would fall.

The next week, he sent postcards to the 500 people who got the accurate prediction, this time with half saying that Ford stock would rise, and half saying it would fall.

The third week, he sent postcards to the 250 people who now got two correct predictions. Half of these were told that GE stock would rise, and half saying it would fall.

On the fourth week, the 125 people who got three correct predictions were then solicited to become his investment clients.

I’m surprised that I’ve never seen this scam repeated in email. (Or I should say, not yet.)