The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Faisal Zafar and Sameer Thawani with securities fraud using an online stock message board. According to the SEC, Zafar and Thawani, both of New York, engaged in a “a classic Internet ‘pump and dump’ manipulation scheme” in which they made a reported $873,000 by posting false reports using at least 300 different identifications touting the stock of at least 24 small-cap companies. The SEC says the two men also targeted specific investors by posing as moderators of Internet user groups devoted to low-priced stocks and sending e-mails to the group members, while at the same time posting false messages under different names on different online message boards.
