Pump-and-dump Scheme

Overview

A Pump-and-Dump Scheme is a type of investment fraud in which promoters falsely hype up a new or obscure stock/equity/asset so that new investors will rush to buy it, thus inflating the price (the "pump"), at which point the scammer sells or liquidates their portion of the asset at these high prices (the "dump"), leaving the other investors with a worthless investment.