US man sued for Extreme share ramp scam
Bogus press release
Regcast training : Hyper-V 3.0, VM high availability and disaster recovery
A US man is being sued for allegedly posting a misleading financial information on Yahoo's! Finance bulletin board last October.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alleged that 24-year-old Kentucky man Ned Sneiderman posted a false press release which claimed that broadband outfit Extreme Networks was buying IT firm Viasource.
The posting helped double Viasource's stock price although both companies moved quickly to deny that the press release was genuine.
The SEC claims Mr Sneiderman bought Viasource stock immediately before posting the fake statement but was unable to cash in on the rise since shares in both companies were suspended.
Helane Morrison, head of the SEC's San Francisco District office, said the "case shows how, in just a few minutes, someone sitting at a computer terminal can cause substantial market disruption", Reuters reports.
A few mostly US companies have been subject to crude but successful attempts to ramp up prices with the release of false press releases on the Net. These include Pairgain and Emulex.
In March 2000, The UK's Financial Services Authority (FSA) issued a number of warning to investors warning them to be on their guard about share tips published on bulletin boards.
Phillip Thorpe, then MD of the FSA, said: "Following such tips blindly can seriously damage your wealth. So the simple message is do not believe everything you read." ®
Related stories
Hedgers or terrorists behind pre-attack stock selling?
Hacker hoaxer splats paintball firm
Man arrested in Net hoax sting
Californian faces 100 years in jail and £10m fine for false press release
FSA hit squad probes for dodgy financial sites
Fake news fraud powers Pairgain stock
IT infrastructure monitoring strategies
Agentless Backup is Not a Myth
Top 10 SIEM implementer’s checklist
Steps to Take Before Choosing a Business Continuity Partner
Enabling efficient data center monitoring
