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Could I use spam to make a profit, legally and ethically?
6 comments- IT TOPICS:Government & Regulation, Security
Last night on my drive home, I listened to a story on 'pump-and-dump' spam that's being sent out on a daily basis. You know the stuff, "Stock XYZ is going to go ballistic today!!!", which it often does because there's a fool born every minute who'll believe this and act on it. Presto, the stock's up for a couple of days, the spammers sell theirs and then everyone starts getting wise and selling off. A week or so later, the stock's 5% or so lower than when it started. No one wins, except the spammers.
I'm not big into stock, but I started wondering if it would be ethical and honest to start arranging for a put on the stocks that are listed in these spam messages. You know, one of those arcane devices thought up by stock analysts that let you sell the stock now, hoping it's price will go down, and then you have to purchase the real stock at a later date. Since it's pretty normal for these stocks to drop after the spam has run its course, you'd be pretty sure of making your profit, just not in the way the spammers are expecting. Unluckily, the owners of the stock in question still lose out in the bargain.
It's an interesting mental exercise, and if someone has the time to track some of these spammed stocks for a couple of months, I'd be interested in hearing your results. I don't think I'm going to try my strategy for two simple reasons: first, it's unethical; second, even if it was ethical, my wife would never agree to it. Oh well.
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