Do you participate in pump and dump groups? You may be the subject of an investigation
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Australia Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) seeks so-called group pump and dump on Telegram. On Monday, an account called “ASIC” sent a message in the Telegram to the ASX Pump Organization group. He warned about 300 members of the group that he is “monitoring this platform and possibly investigating you”:
“Coordinated pumping of a price for profit may be illegal. We see all the stores and we have access to the identities of the merchants. You risk a criminal record, including a fine of more than $ 1 million and imprisonment. ”
Many members of the group considered the account to be fake, but the ASIC to the Australian newspaper confirmed the validity of the message that has already been deleted.
Pump and dump groups are not anonymous
On September 23, ASIC issued a warning about the trend of social media groups engaging in pump and dump campaigns. They said that in some cases, posts on social media forums could mislead subscribers by suggesting that the activity was legal. ASIC works closely with market operators to identify pump and dump groups.
Although the activity concerns cryptocurrencies, which by law may not always be financial products, the practice of market manipulation already concerns prosecution.
Pump and dump groups gained popularity this year after the January event of r/wallstreetbets and Robinhood. Reddit groups have worked together to pump stocks such as GameStop (GME) and AMC Entertainment (AMC).
