Spammers Get Bullish

The "Pump and Dump" stock email scam was very popular in years past (at one time comprising close to 10%-15% of all spam) but had fallen off the radar almost entirely until today. We began seeing a new pump and dump scam this morning coming in at a notable rate. If you are not familiar with this scam I will explain- Step 1. The scammer takes a position on a usually rather unknown "Penny Stock" 2. The scammer sends out a blast of emails making false claims about the stock to encourage investors to buy the stock 3. When investors buy, the stock price goes up 4. The scammer sells off all of their shares at the higher price and investors are left holding the bag. This is a scam that has been around for nearly a decade, popularized in 2000 when then 15 year old Jonathan Lebed was charged by the SEC with “using the internet to conduct a stock manipulation scheme that made profits exceeding $270,000”. Throughout the years after this incident, seeing large PnD stock pushes was a daily occurrence. Along with the scams we also saw many individuals being charged and convicted for perpetrating these scams. It now appears spammers may be attempting to capitalize on the upward trend in the US stock market over the past several months. This morning’s apparent PnD scam targets -Insight Management Corporation. While this is a considerably lower volume campaign than those seen in the past, it may still be having some effect on the stock price and trading volume.

In this case the scammers chose a stock that did in fact, just yesterday, make an announcement that it will file its quarterly results by month end. Spammers appear to be attempting to capitalize on the added attention some investors will have due to the announcement and to couple that momentum with the added price pressure applied with the spam campaign.
Here is a sample of the message: