Calls Go Unanswered as Securities Regulators Watches Firms.

Byline: Krissana Parnsoonthorn

Jul. 28--Following Thursday's crackdown on the "boiler room" operations of the Brinton Group and Benson Dupont Capital Management on Thursday, 21 unlicensed securities firms under close watch by securities regulators have quickly begun fading away.

Telephone calls to many of the firms yesterday were met with continually busy lines or no responses. In some cases, answering machines requested that callers leave their names and account details and marketing officers would contact them later. Some said they were sorry, their companies had already been closed.

Of the 21 companies on the Securities and Exchange Commission's list, only Fortune International Inc, located at One Pacific Place on Sukhumvit Road, had a live telephone operator picking up calls.

However, the more senior of the two staff at the number said they did not work for the company and only collected messages.

"The company's staff have not been in today and we don't know when they would be back," she said, declining to give names of senior staff for contact in order to open an account.

Prasarn Trairatvorakul, secretary-general of SEC, said the agency had received many complaints from foreign investors that they had received "cold calls" from marketing officers of these firms, asking them to invest in stocks and using high-pressure tactics.