Service NL
October 22, 2015

Public Advisory: Public Advised of Possible Fraudulent Activity

Service NL, as well as securities regulators in other regions of Canada, is cautioning the public about fraudulent stock promotions that use popular smart phone messaging applications such as WhatsApp to generate investor interest.

Like other schemes that seek to create artificial interest in a particular stock, these promotions use spam to boast the benefits of a company and convince individuals to invest. Investors are unaware that the individual or company advertising the stock owns a large amount of it. As investors increasingly buy shares, the value dramatically rises. Once the price hits a peak, the scam artist sells their shares and the value of the stock plummets, leaving investors with worthless shares.

Residents, in particular users of messaging applications, are advised to disregard any promotional spam they receive and report it to the Financial Services Regulation Division with Service NL at 709-729-2596.

Consumer alerts are posted to the Service NL website: www.servicenl.gov.nl.ca/consumer_alerts.html.

- 30 -

Media contact:

Jason Card Director of Communications Service NL 709-729-4860, 699-0470 jasoncard@gov.nl.ca

2015 10 22                              1:50 p.m.