SEC Suspends Stocks Promoted in Spam

By Ben Gross
in

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently suspended thirty-five Pink Sheet stocks that were touted in “pump and dump” spam. The suspensions were part of the SEC’s “Operation Spamalot” and will last for ten days. This move is intended reduce the amount of stock related spam, especially if the SEC continues to suspend new companies. The suspensions can be cause substantial hardship on the companies affected. The SEC will have to balance the harm caused to any legitimate companies with the public good of reducing spam over the long term. Hopefully, vendors who track spam flows will begin to release data about the effects that the suspensions have on spam volume.

Published March 12, 2007