Here's a tip about stock tips -- any stock tip you get for free is probably worth what you paid for it.

That stock tips are usually not worth the air into which they're uttered still does not deter people from embracing them. That stock tips are alive and well is no where more evident than Internet chat boards. Go to any company chat board on Yahoo, for example, and you'll see tip after tip after tip.

"This stock is going to the moon."

"Buy at $2, sell at $200."

"My best friend's uncle's sister-in-law works at this company and says business is booming. Time to buy."

The problem with stock tips, especially on the Internet, is that everybody has an agenda, yet you have no idea what that agenda is. The anonymous person making those bullish posts could be someone who is selling the same stock on strength.

You might recall last year the story of the SEC uncovering a major plot to manipulate stock prices via Internet chat boards. The mastermind behind this treachery, according to the SEC, was flooding Yahoo chat boards with up to 600 messages pumping stocks. As the stocks would rise, the person would dump the stocks at a profit. This turned out to be a pretty lucrative scheme for the individual. Indeed, he ended up surrendering $273,000 in profits to the SEC.

The kicker to the story -- The brain behind this elaborate Internet fraud was a 15-year old high school student.

Imagine how all those "savvy Internet investors" felt when they learned that they were following the tips of someone who wasn't old enough to shave, much less trade for himself.

So the next time you're tempted to put some money to work based on a tip you read on an Internet chat board, keep in mind that the source of that tip may just be getting out of gym class.