How people get Stock scammed?

This illegal practice has becomes more and more prevalent.

Fraudsters post messages online enticing investors to buy a stock quickly, with claims to have inside information that some development will lead to an upswing in the share's price. Once buyers jump in, the perpetrators sell their shares, causing the price to drop dramatically. New investors then lose their money.

These schemes usually target micro- and small-cap stocks, as they are the easiest to manipulate.

Due to the small float of these types of stocks, it does not take a lot of new buyers to push a stock higher.Promoters of the scheme will then begin to coordinate rumors, misinformation, or hype in order to artificially increase interest in the security, driving up its price. Then, once the price of the stock has been increased sufficiently by unsuspecting marks, the promoters then sell the stock at high prices.