Here is another article. Again, Not suggesting anything. Just...

Here is another article. Again, Not suggesting anything. Just saying pump and dumps are rife in the penny arena. Whatever stock, tread carefully in this space.

Australian Financial Review
Pump and dumpers face jail: ASIC

Michael Roddan and Richard Henderson

Sep 23, 2021 – 2.34pm

Punters looking to make aquick buck through social media-fuelled “pump and dump” campaigns in financialmarkets have been warned they may face up to 15 years in jail and fines of morethan $1 million if caught manipulating the market.

The Australian Securitiesand Investments Commission said it was monitoring a “concerning trend” ofsocial media posts being used to co-ordinate “pump and dump” trading in listedequites.

It comes after TheAustralian Financial Review reported on messaging groups on theencrypted app Telegram named ASX Pump and Dump Channel and ASX Pump and DumpGroup, which boast about 1600 members and regularly post messages referencingother penny stocks or sharemarket chat forums.

Shares in Aura Energy, whichwas readmitted to trade on Thursday following a lengthy suspension, rocketed6650 per cent higher, taking the uranium miner’s stock from 0.3¢ a share to 27¢each. The company had been identified as a pump target by the Telegram groupsbefore the start of trade on Thursday.

Penny stock gold minerAustralasian Gold Limited bolted higher this month shortly after the marketopened after members of the chat groups identified it as a target. In August,the Norway-based battery metals explorer, Kuniko Ltd, rocketed as much as 370per cent to $3.60, or 13-fold its initial public offer price of 20¢, after itlisted just two days earlier. The stock had been targeted by the same Telegramgroup.

Pump and dump trading is part of a tactic usedby short-term traders who build up a holding in a company before organising aconcerted rally in the stock by creating a false sense of excitement about thecompany’s news or prospects. They aim to sell for a profit when the share pricerises.

Organised manipulators of stock or cryptocurrency prices will generally accumulate shares in the pump target in the days before the pump itself, with the aim of selling into a pre-planned dump known by its “rugging” slang term.

Blatant attempt to pumpshare prices

In a post on the “ASX Bets”online forum Reddit, a moderator this week warned participants to stop promoting these Telegram groups.

“Stop it. Stop it now. Getthe f--- out of our sub, get the f--- out of our community, get the f--- out ofour planet,” the user said. “Pump and Dump groups aren’t there to make youmoney, they are there to make the organisers money, because they buy beforeyou. Because its a f---ing scam.”

ASIC said it had recentlyseen “blatant attempts to pump share prices” and that market manipulation was“illegal”.

“ASIC has been workingclosely with market operators to identify and disrupt pump and dump campaigns,and we will continue to target actions that threaten the integrity of marketsand to take enforcement action where appropriate,” ASIC commissioner CathieArmour said.

“We expect anyone involvedin these campaigns to recognise the potential impact on market integrity and tobe aware ASIC monitors all trading on the ASX equity market on a real-timebasis,” she said.

While ASIC may not be ableto identify individual members of a group chat, it does have the capacity toidentify the identities of financial market traders.

Online crypto scams, socialmedia-driven “pump and dump” stock-ramming schemes and low-cost apps that seekto “gamify” share trading are all on the corporate watchdog’s priority list asit seeks to clamp down on new excesses in the digital financial system.

The share of retailinvestors in the sharemarket has grown to about 15 per cent from about 10 percent before the pandemic. It reached more than 20 per cent earlier this yearamid the GameStop-related fervour.

The trend was more extremein the United States, where low-cost trading platforms such as Robinhoodattracted millions of new investors.

In April, the ASIC was getting in touch with moderators of Facebook sharemarket forums, seeking to arrange meetings to discuss the pages and how content is managed.