Hemisphere Gold, a pink sheets-traded mining development company, said it has fired its investor relations staff after a computer spam program touting HG stock infected several thousand computers.

In a typo-riddled release (apparently because they let go of the press release writers), the company said:

“…in conjunction with last week[’]s unauthorized and unapproved releases of information through email by unknown parties, [Hemisphere Gold] has released all of its investor relations personnel effective immediately."


HG said after consulting with legal counsel and other advisors it felt axing the staffers was the best move as it tries to find the source of the stock-pumping scheme. That followed an initial statement that distanced the company from the spam messages.

The program touting the stock is actually a virus known as Storm worm and pops up on a user's screen with an email-type window in a web browser. The HG message appeared as the “Gold Economy Newsletter” and rated the HG stock as a “strong buy.” Its shares actually rose 20 cents to $1.20.

Here's a link to the pop-up, courtesy of the Washington Post "Security Fix" blog.