The FBI warns the public about criminals targeting US stock investors through social media platforms and messaging service applications (apps). The scheme, known as a “ramp-and-dump” stock manipulation, targets US investors through online engagement, often via social media advertisements or messages promoting an “investment club” of fellow investors, some of which may be bots or fake accounts.
These promotions typically direct victims to secure messaging apps where the group operates. To appear credible, perpetrators may impersonate legitimate brokerage firms or well-known stock analysts. They secretly control a large volume of a low-priced stock and coordinate efforts to inflate its price (“ramp up”) by encouraging investment club members to purchase shares over a period of several weeks or months. Once the price is artificially elevated, the criminals sell off (“dump”) their shares at a profit, leaving unsuspecting investors with significant losses as the stock value collapses.
Read more…
Source: U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation Cyber Division
Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest news and insights delivered right to your inbox.
Related:
- Two Pentagon officials fired amid sweeping leak investigation
April 20, 2025
The week of turmoil affecting the Pentagon’s inner circle continued Friday, when two political appointees suspended earlier this week were terminated, multiple officials told CBS News. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s chief of staff, Joe Kasper, ordered an investigation into unauthorized disclosures in March. His memo said the investigation would seek “a complete record” of leaks ...
- FBI Warns of Scammers Impersonating the IC3
April 18, 2025
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) warns the public about an ongoing fraud scheme where criminal scammers are impersonating FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) employees to deceive and defraud individuals. Between December 2023 and February 2025, the FBI received more than 100 reports of IC3 impersonation scams. How It Works Complainants report initial contact from the ...
- Over 1.6 million customers now hit in massive insurance data breach
April 17, 2025
More than 1.6 million people are now thought to have been affected by the May 2024 cyberattack at Landmark Admin, twice as many as originally thought. The company confirmed the news in an updated report filed with the Office of the Maine Attorney General. “The forensic investigation determined that data was encrypted and exfiltrated from Landmark’s ...
- Chinese police put 3 U.S. operatives on wanted list over cyberattacks
April 15, 2025
Police authorities in Harbin, in northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province, said on Tuesday that they are pursuing three operatives affiliated with the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) over suspected cyberattacks against China. The Harbin public security bureau said that the three operatives — Katheryn A. Wilson, Robert J. Snelling, and Stephen W. Johnson — had been ...
- EU gives staff ‘burner phones, laptops’ for US visits
April 15, 2025
The European Commission is giving staffers visiting the US on official business burner laptops and phones to avoid espionage attempts, according to the Financial Times. The use of clean and locked-down hardware is common practice for anyone visiting China, Russia, and other states where aggressive electronic surveillance is expected. Apparently the European Union has added the ...
- Trump orders federal investigation into former CISA director Chris Krebs
April 10, 2025
President Trump on Wednesday ordered a federal investigation into Chris Krebs, the former director of U.S. cybersecurity agency CISA. In a new executive order, Trump instructed the Department of Homeland Security, which houses CISA, and the U.S. attorney general to investigate Krebs, who was fired by the Trump administration in November 2020 soon after he publicly ...