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One way fraudsters may exploit social media is to engage in a market manipulation, such as spreading false and misleading information about a company to affect the stock’s share price. Wrongdoers may perpetuate stock rumors on social media, as well as on online bulletin boards and in Internet chat rooms.

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SEC Enforcement Action Involving Social Media and Market Manipulation

The SEC has charged individuals for committing securities fraud through the use of social media.

In a recent Enforcement action, SEC v. Craig, the SEC accused an individual of manipulating the share prices of two publicly traded companies by tweeting false and misleading information. The defendant allegedly tweeted rumors that federal law enforcement was investigating a technology company for fraud, and that a biopharmaceutical company had tainted drug trial results and a federal government agency seized its papers. The SEC asserted that these deceptive tweets were made from Twitter accounts mimicking established securities research firms. The hoaxes allegedly caused investors to lose more than $1.5 million.

In SEC v. McKeown and Ryan, the SEC obtained judgments against a Canadian couple who used their website (PennyStockChaser), Facebook, and Twitter to pump up the stock of microcap companies, and then profited by selling shares of those companies. The couple allegedly received millions of shares of these companies as compensation and sold the shares around the time that their website predicted the stock price would massively increase (a practice known as “scalping”). The SEC’s complaint alleged that the couple did not fully disclose the compensation they received for touting the stocks. The court ordered the couple and their companies to pay more than $3.7 million in disgorgement for profits gained as a result of the alleged conduct, and ordered the couple to pay $300,000 in civil penalties.

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Think twice about investing if you spot any of these red flags of investment fraud:

Limited history of posts. Fraudsters can set up new accounts specifically designed to carry out their scam while concealing their true identities. Be skeptical of information from social media accounts that lack a history of prior postings or sending messages.