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Edition: U.S. Article Comments (0) Slideshow Email Print Reprints Read Pope says in book he would resign if incapacitated 10:13am EST Saudi king to seek medical treatment in U.S. 21 Nov 2010 UPDATE 2-US has no plans to retreat from traveler patdowns 21 Nov 2010 New Zealand mine rescue stalled as hopes fade 10:25am EST Irish government partner demands election | 10:44am EST Discussed 171 Obama’s Democrats in disarray over expiring tax cuts 115 Analysis: Europe is next test for weakened Obama 96 Sweet drinks, sales tax targeted to cut deficit Watched Bejeweled bra exposed in NY Thu, Oct 21 2010 Row over vote orgasm video Fri, Nov 19 2010 Japanese Tourism Bra Wed, Nov 10 2010 Analysis Should you trust Facebook with email? Facebook already knows a massive amount about you. Now, the social networking site is expanding its reach even further with a new messaging system that includes email. What do the new features mean for your privacy? Full Article Special Report: The stock, the Web, the CEO and his lawyers Tweet This Share on LinkedIn Share on Facebook By Rosalba O'Brien and Matthew Scuffham LONDON (Reuters) - As a CEO, David Bramhill could handle the online attacks on his looks and his character. "You get used to the personal stuff that goes up: 'Fat bastard,' etc.," says the burly one-time boxer... Related News SPECIAL REPORT-The stock, the web, the CEO and his lawyers 6:13am EST Special Report: Sleepy in Seattle - Microsoft learns to mature Wed, Oct 27 2010 Special report: Faked in China: Inside the pirates' web Tue, Oct 26 2010 Related Topics Technology » Stocks 1 / 6 A screen shows the home page of the Advanced Financial Network (ADVFN) website November 18, 2010. Credit: Reuters/Simon Newman By Rosalba O'Brien and Matthew Scuffham LONDON | Mon Nov 22, 2010 7:51am EST LONDON (Reuters) - As a CEO, David Bramhill could handle the online attacks on his looks and his character. "You get used to the personal stuff that goes up: 'Fat bastard,' etc.," says the burly one-time boxer and oil industry veteran. "I don't like it but I suppose being in the position I'm in, OK, they can take pot shots at me." But when the messages on internet bulletin boards became a concerted campaign of criticism against his oil and gas exploration company, Bramhill snapped. "When it comes to dishonesty, and not running the company the way it should be run, and spreading untrue rumors -- this is where we've got major, major issues," a disillusioned Bramhill told Reuters in early September. Bramhill's experience is part of a bigger story of insults and untruths involving a clutch of firms listed on AIM, London's junior stock market. According to the companies, they are victims of a kind of financial cyber-bullying in which discussions among investors on internet bulletin boards have turned abusive. Executives of the targeted companies, typically small and often in commodities, suspect an organized hand may be directing those behind the comments -- and then cashing in on the reaction. The incidents expose a lack of effective regulation of investment chat boards as well as the huge impact anonymous posters can have on smaller companies and people's lives. Soon after Bramhill spoke to Reuters, the 59-year old, who also received physical threats from people posting on investment message boards, announced his retirement. The company he led, Nighthawk Energy, invested $30 million in its U.S.-based projects over the last financial year and was earlier this month rated a 'buy' by Goldman Sachs. Frustrated with a lack of action by Britain's market regulator, which says such cases are difficult to police and a low priority, Nighthawk, fellow AIM-listed oil explorer Nostra Terra and several other small companies have considered legal action against message board-posters, who typically use multiple aliases to disguise their identity. In rulings that have emboldened the companies, Britain's High Court granted orders to both Nighthawk and Nostra Terra this year giving them the right to order message boards to disclose the identities of those behind the disparaging remarks. The issue is not unique to Britain. Companies in the United States have also complained about message board users, though there the right to free speech provides significant protection for posters. Not so in Canada, where last March small cap resources firm Farallon Mining Ltd won damages of $425,000 against a user of online site Stockhouse. It was the biggest defamation payout ever awarded against a single person in Canada. "The bulletin board becomes the tail wagging the bloody company," Bramhill says. "There was one particular theme of dishonesty in the company, of projects not being correct. We're aware of all this stuff. It's all a load of baloney and you try not to look at it but people send you it and ask, 'What are you going to do about it?'" Another executive told Reuters that his company has found one individual posting defamatory comments using 22 different aliases. "We believe there is a network behind it that's trading and manipulating and they're using him as the front," says the executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the company is pursuing the investigation. "We want to get the bigger fish - otherwise we would have taken him down already." LATE-NIGHT LIBEL Investor message boards appeared in the very early days of the web and boomed among private investors working as "day traders" during the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s. The boards Nighthawk and Nostra Terra have focused on in their legal challenges are ADVFN, or Advanced Financial Network, and iii, or Interactive Investor. ADVFN is Europe's biggest financial markets website with two million registered users and as many as 12,000 posts a day. iii claims 1.6 million users, and clocked up around 180,000 posts from over 9,000 contributors over the last month. Neither board requires participants to reveal their real identity as they post, and it's not difficult for a single user to create multiple aliases. ADVFN users can opt for what the site calls the "more refined environment" of premium boards at a cost of 5 pounds ($7.97) per month, or enter the fray of the much more popular free boards, which require a simple registration. Posts on message boards vary from the short and bitter ("I'm out", to flag a stock sale) to mini-essays dissecting the minutiae of company statements. As with most internet forums, the grammar is dubious, insults are bandied freely and the messages are loaded with abbreviations and euphemisms that can be indecipherable to outsiders. Because of their potential volatility, small companies in risky industries like oil exploration are a favorite topic. On the iii forum in October, for instance, Falklands oil explorer Desire Petroleum was one of the most talked about stocks. One evening posters speculated on the company's drilling campaign, on which it was about due to report, through the night. "There were very strong bad vibes yesterday and I sold my last remaining DES," said 'Pro_S2009' at 4 in the morning. His or her inclination proved far sighted. At 7 am Desire announced that a well was a 'duster' -- had no oil -- kicking off hundreds of accusatory messages, conspiracy theories and recommendations. "Stick your buy orders in very low," said one. "The city insiders know the deal," said another. Many were unpublishable. The big audiences the sites attract have delivered good returns for a few. Cambridge graduate Tomas Carruthers founded iii in 1995 and floated it in 2000, when, like many internet stocks, its market value rocketed even though it made a loss. Sold to an Australian company for around 50 million pounds in 2001, it was eventually bought back by Carruthers and partners in 2004. ADVFN, which itself is listed on AIM, last year made a small profit on revenues of 8 million pounds. The company is founded and run by internet entrepreneur Clem Chambers, a self-styled market commentator and author of financial thrillers such as "The Twain Maxim", a story of a shady mining promoter and a broker missing in the Congolese jungle, and financial investment articles and books such as the upcoming "101 ways to pick stock market winners with ADVFN". ADVFN declined to be interviewed for this article and did not answer questions sent in an email. A spokeswoman said: "Our bulletin boards are not part of our strategic outreach at the moment, as such we don't have any material on these topics." At iii, Chief Technology Officer Tim Huckle said: "We operate and encourage a 'neighborhood watch' process on the boards, where the site users themselves police postings by highlighting those that are offensive or questionable." Since August 2010, Huckle said, iii has required new users to ring a contact center that takes "the necessary steps to identify the user as far as possible". 1 2 3 4 Next Technology Add a Comment *We welcome comments that advance the story directly or with relevant tangential information. We try to block comments that use offensive language or appear to be spam and review comments frequently to ensure they meet our standards. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. © Copyright 2010 Thomson Reuters Editorial Editions: Africa Arabic Argentina Brazil Canada China France Germany India Italy Japan Latin America Mexico Russia Spain United Kingdom United States Reuters Contact Us Advertise With Us Help Journalism Handbook Archive Site Index Video Index Reader Feedback Mobile Newsletters RSS Podcasts Widgets Your View Analyst Research Thomson Reuters Copyright Disclaimer Privacy Professional Products Professional Products Support Financial Products About Thomson Reuters Careers Online Products Acquisitions Monthly Buyouts Venture Capital Journal International Financing Review Project Finance International PEhub.com PE Week FindLaw Reuters on Facebook Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests. NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here.

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