Securities Litigation

In a September 2 Alert, FINRA warns that scammers are using messaging app spam-casts to impersonate brokers and tout micro-cap stocks to "pump" their prices, before "dumping" their positions at the top and leaving investors holding the bag. Fraudsters merely are taking advantage of newer cross-platform messaging apps (like WhatsApp) that avoid SMS charges, thus making their spam-casts easier. In a pump-and-dump scheme, the scammers take a big position, typically in a thinly-traded penny (or "microcap") stock. Then they tout the stock urgently - often on pretended inside ...