I remember this back in 2010 and for this one I want to nominate my Boss.
One of the Newsletters (Stansberry?) used to write about upcoming stocks and they would provide all the details but without actually naming the stock. They went on about how there was going to be a conference call to share all the information in the next few days and it was going to explode. You were supposed to subscribe to the report and get the access to the call details.
Anyway my boss called me into his office on the Monday morning to tell me about his weekend and what he had found.
He had spent all weekend researching the details in the free newsletter blurb and by using Google he had identified that the company they were discussing was Groote Resources and he even showed me the location on the world map and that he had used Google to match a photograph of some crystal with a news release from Groote .
He was so excited that he had worked this out himself and that it was a surefire thing, that we both just had to get in on this opportunity.
I went in for 5k and he went in for 20k, but it gets worse.
The 20k he put in was all his free capital, but he was so convinced this would take off that it wan't enough for him and so he rang his elderly Father to send him another 10k. The Father was reluctant, but did send the money and it was duly fed into the Pump and Dump scheme.
Fortunately for me I was watching the price very carefully and within the week the price peaked and started to come back down and it began to look very weak. I sold out for scratch and told my Boss to be careful, but he didn't sell. He wouldn't sell as he was still convinced it was going up.
I showed him the charts but he kept on holding, until it got to the point where it was worth so little that it wasn't worth selling and it just went into the bottom drawer.
Eventually he told me that he sold out at a 30k loss and he had paid his Father back.
We still laugh about that Groote experience even now, whenever their name comes up and we usually find time to mention Nautilus, who at that time were going to mine gold under the sea in PNG. (and they still are)
