
Online Brokerage Zecco Pretends To Give Away Millions, Panics When People Start Spending - peter123
http://consumerist.com/5198894/worst-april-fools-ever-online-brokerage-zecco-pretends-to-give-away-millions-panics-when-people-start-spending
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markbao
It's ludicrous for a _stock brokerage_ with _real_ mony at risk to pull an
April Fools prank, let alone one that deals with a trader's buying
power/balances. Ridiculous.

Plus, I'm sure that there's some kind of SEC rule dealing with accurate
reporting of a trader's balance. I doubt they did any due diligence before
pulling this.

(Or as _kirse_ said, it could have been a bug—a very serious, untimely bug.)

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chris11
Right now, I am having trouble believing that this was a prank. I just can't
believe that anyone would be stupid enough to do this. And if it were a prank,
why would Zecco let trades be executed? I doubt that any prankster would want
the company to be executing millions of dollars of invalid trades. I have a
lot easier time believing this was an untimely bug.

~~~
patio11
_I just can't believe that anyone would be stupid enough to do this_

Seriously. They're in a hyper-regulated, extraordinarily conservative
industry. It would be like your doctor coming over and saying "Hey, bad news
chap, you've got pancreatic cancer and have about 6 hours to live" for the
lulz.

~~~
sam_in_nyc
I would pay for that. And also, for somebody to sneak into my apartment and
set all the clocks fast by 10 minutes.

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dkokelley
This has all the markings of a good class-action suit. Zecco betrayed their
duty of accurate account reporting (whether intentional as a 4/1 gag or
unintentionally as a bug), and their customers acted on that information - to
their harm. Am I missing anything here? I have a Zecco account (that I've
never really used). I wonder if I'd be included in any class-action.

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wayne
First the SlideShare fiasco (<http://mashable.com/2009/04/01/slideshare-april-
fools/>) and now this. April Fool's on the web is so stupid. I don't know why
companies are so willing to bet their reputations for a chance at hilarity.

~~~
jibiki
I thought the slideshare thing was funny, although probably not good for
business. This, on the other hand, is borderline malicious; there is no way in
hell I would use their service now.

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mahmud
"In Smart Money Magazine's 2008 Broker Survey, Smart Money named Zecco as one
of the worst in the customer service category. [6]."

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zecco.com#Criticisms>

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aka
Consumorist article has been pulled. Zecco say it was a glitch not a joke:
[http://www.zecco.com/forums/Important-Message-from-Zecco-
Tra...](http://www.zecco.com/forums/Important-Message-from-Zecco-
Tradin-53227_1.aspx)

~~~
adamhowell
Wow, I can't believe Consumorist just pulls stories when they're wrong. It's
called "(Updated)", even TechCrunch knows that.

This particular instance obviously isn't that big a deal, but things like this
make me worried for our paperless futures.

~~~
aka
Look at that - Consumorist listened to you :) Story is back online again, with
an update

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kirse
Before everyone gets up in arms... how do we know this was an April Fool's
joke and not an unfortunate glitch? All I'm seeing is this website calling it
a joke with no real justification.

Secondly, I'd be curious to see the intraday charts for the stocks that were
purchased, just to see the effect this may have had.

Thirdly, everyone knows that Zecco sucks and if you want a great social-
networking broker, go with TradeKing.

~~~
ashleyw
Kinda related — does anyone know the best/cheapest online broker in the UK?
TradeKing looks awesome at $4.95/trade, but the best I've found so far are
around $20/trade! :(

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dbr
If customers took the loss when stocks were traded with the money, did they
also take the gains?

It would be pretty bad if Zecco stuck customers with the loses from losing
trades, but took the gains from the profitable trades.

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ztravis
A roommate of a personal friend was allowed to keep ~$600 in profits from
trades using this 'fake' buying power after making a large stock purchase.
Perhaps hearsay, but I'm inclined to believe that this really happened.

~~~
icey
"A roommate of a personal friend"... that's pretty much the _definition_ of
hearsay.

