Boiler Room
Definition
Boiler room. A boiler room is a location used by con artists to contact potential victims out-of-the-blue -- an approach known as cold calling -- in an attempt to sell high-risk investments that may or may not be legitimate.
Boiler room scammers typically use high-pressure tactics to close an immediate sale and are unwilling to provide written information about either the investment they are pushing or themselves.
Plot
A morally decent college dropout finds himself at conflict with his harsh federal judge father. He gets a job as a stock broker and gets on the fast track to success. Only things take a turn for the worst when he learns that his job isn't what's it cracked up to be.
Avoid fraud
The heart of a fraudulent telemarketing operation is usually a "boiler room," a rented space with desks, telephones, and experienced salespeople who talk to hundreds of people from across the country every day.
In a typical investment-related boiler room the "brokers" ( registered reps ) may sit crowded together in a room with long tables with up to seven phone stations per table. The firm likely holds mandatory sales meetings every morning at which time sales techniques are demonstrated and "scripts" for the firm's "house stock" are distributed. Brokers are expected to follow the script and only give customers the information it contains. They are discouraged from doing any outside research, and are told to rely on the firm's research and representations.
After the morning sales meeting, the reps are expected to spend the entire day on the phone. The firm expects a high volume of sales, and if brokers do not stay on the phone, they are fired. One registered rep told an examiner that he made 250 calls on a good day; 70 on a bad day. All of his calls had been previously "qualified" by an unregistered cold caller.
Many telemarketing firms utilize a monitoring process which randomly tape-records the sales conversations of its telemarketers and they are made aware of
Boiler room. A boiler room is a location used by con artists to contact potential victims out-of-the-blue -- an approach known as cold calling -- in an attempt to sell high-risk investments that may or may not be legitimate.
Boiler room scammers typically use high-pressure tactics to close an immediate sale and are unwilling to provide written information about either the investment they are pushing or themselves.
Plot
A morally decent college dropout finds himself at conflict with his harsh federal judge father. He gets a job as a stock broker and gets on the fast track to success. Only things take a turn for the worst when he learns that his job isn't what's it cracked up to be.
Avoid fraud
The heart of a fraudulent telemarketing operation is usually a "boiler room," a rented space with desks, telephones, and experienced salespeople who talk to hundreds of people from across the country every day.
In a typical investment-related boiler room the "brokers" ( registered reps ) may sit crowded together in a room with long tables with up to seven phone stations per table. The firm likely holds mandatory sales meetings every morning at which time sales techniques are demonstrated and "scripts" for the firm's "house stock" are distributed. Brokers are expected to follow the script and only give customers the information it contains. They are discouraged from doing any outside research, and are told to rely on the firm's research and representations.
After the morning sales meeting, the reps are expected to spend the entire day on the phone. The firm expects a high volume of sales, and if brokers do not stay on the phone, they are fired. One registered rep told an examiner that he made 250 calls on a good day; 70 on a bad day. All of his calls had been previously "qualified" by an unregistered cold caller.
Many telemarketing firms utilize a monitoring process which randomly tape-records the sales conversations of its telemarketers and they are made aware of