How AI is Making “Pump and Dump” Investment Scams Easy for Criminals

The Perfect Scam

AARP

True Crime, Aarp, Fraud, Society & Culture, Scam, Crime, Bobsullivan

4.5 • 980 Ratings

🗓️ 27 June 2025

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Karen is experienced in investing, but she hopes to boost her retirement savings by joining an investors group on WhatsApp. After a few months of receiving positive trading tips, she follows the advice to invest in several stocks in Asian markets. Her portfolio plummets, losing tens of thousands of dollars. Karen is the victim of a classic “pump and dump” scam: scammers buy a very cheap stock, persuade investors to buy by spreading deceptive claims, and then sell their shares once the price rises, leaving investors with a loss. Learn how AI and an army of bots are making this age-old scam easier for criminals.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This week on the perfect scam.
0:04.0	I think behind all this is AI generating responses.
0:09.0	Oh wow.
0:10.0	Yeah, because we're all finding a similar pattern of some of the responses we got, some of the recommendations that we got.
0:17.0	Wow.
0:18.0	So you wonder, like, how does one person interact with so many people all at the same time?
0:27.7	Welcome back to The Perfect Scam. I'm your host, Bob Sullivan. Pump and Dump. Buy a very cheap stock,
0:35.5	convince a bunch of other people to buy it so the stock price goes up,
0:39.3	then sell your shares for a tidy profit while everyone else loses money.
0:44.3	Sounds a bit like a financial game of musical chairs, but it's no game.
0:49.3	It's very serious and very illegal.
0:53.3	And it's become very easy in the age of artificial intelligence.
0:57.0	Today's story combines many elements we often talk about here on the perfect scam.
1:03.0	Celebrity power, fake promises of investment gains, CD online chat rooms.
1:08.0	But the part of this story I don't want you to miss is how an army of
1:12.0	bots, digital robots, superchargers, and age-old pump and dump crime into something
1:18.0	really devastating. Meet a woman will call Karen. She wants to protect her identity.
1:25.6	A self-employed consultant who has a fair bit of experience saving and investing for retirement.
1:31.9	Can you tell me what it is that you do?
1:34.3	I do consulting.
1:35.7	Okay.
1:36.3	Yeah.
	...

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