The two sites are Sharepages.com and Digitallook.com. The former has 270,000 users. Newspapers and financial periodicals were exempted from the restrictions on publishing tips in 1986 and they can publish them on their own web sites. Accordingly, Sharepages.com is now linking its tips page to the web sites of national newspapers.
The Financial Services Authority is understood to be discussing with the Treasury the possibility of extending the exemption enjoyed by newspapers to cover other web sites. A spokeswoman said: “We are not banning share tipping where people are authorised, but we are here to protect consumers.”
In March this year, the FSA warned against following tips on web sites and in internet chat rooms. FSA Managing Director Phillip Thorpe said:
“There is potential for the unscrupulous to place false or misleading messages in order to make money for themselves. Following such tips blindly can seriously damage your wealth. So the simple message is do not believe everything you read. Do some research - the internet can make that easy and cheap - and make sure that your share purchases and sales are an informed decision.”