The Truth About Investment Scams

Steve Weisman

Pump and Dump

We’ve all received emails that contained glowing recommendations of a particular stock, or perhaps you’ve learned of an Internet forum about a particular “steal” of a stock that’s about to take off. Or maybe you even received an email intended for someone else giving you “inside” information about a particular small company stock that is about to rocket to high profits on the stock market. Just ask Martha Stewart. It’s not a good thing.

When you get this email or pick up this information, it looks so harmless and appears to be such an easy way to make a big buck that the temptation may be great. The companies involved in this scam are actual companies, but with such small capitalization ...