Slashdot Mirror
Twitter Stock Jumps Nearly 8 Percent After Fake Report
vivaoporto writes: As noted by Re/code and many other outlets, Twitter stock jumped nearly 8 percent after a bogus report, attributed to Bloomberg News, said Twitter had received a $31 billion buyout offer. The fake story, which cited "people with knowledge of the situation," appeared on a website (Google Cache version) made to look like Bloomberg's business news page and claimed the company had received a takeover offer worth $31 billion.
The website domain, bloomberg.market (now suspended), was registered Friday, according to a search of ICANN's records. The identity of the person or company who registered it is not publicly available. Close scrutiny flagged a number of questionable elements in the report, like the name of Twitter's former chief executive, Richard Costolo, being misspelled. By late afternoon, the web page for bloomberg.market was no longer operable. A message posted on the page said, "account suspended." A spokesman for Bloomberg confirmed the takeover article was fake.
In May, a fake bid for another company, Avon Products, sent its shares as much as 20 percent higher. That offer involved a document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Last month the SEC sued a Bulgarian man, Nedko Nedev, and said he and five others worked together to violate securities laws by creating fake takeover offers. Robert Heim, a former lawyer at the SEC, said these kinds of schemes will probably persist because news spreads so fast over social media and traders have to react so quickly.
The website domain, bloomberg.market (now suspended), was registered Friday, according to a search of ICANN's records. The identity of the person or company who registered it is not publicly available. Close scrutiny flagged a number of questionable elements in the report, like the name of Twitter's former chief executive, Richard Costolo, being misspelled. By late afternoon, the web page for bloomberg.market was no longer operable. A message posted on the page said, "account suspended." A spokesman for Bloomberg confirmed the takeover article was fake.
In May, a fake bid for another company, Avon Products, sent its shares as much as 20 percent higher. That offer involved a document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Last month the SEC sued a Bulgarian man, Nedko Nedev, and said he and five others worked together to violate securities laws by creating fake takeover offers. Robert Heim, a former lawyer at the SEC, said these kinds of schemes will probably persist because news spreads so fast over social media and traders have to react so quickly.
hopefully this will encourage misinformation awareness or foster some web-of-trust technology.
Maybe the "interests" behind the reports were just some crazy day trader with potential upside of chump change compared to total market movement. Or, If not this time, some time soon it will be kids or terrorists or a disgruntled ex-employee.
Actually, several years ago there was some article posted to a part of CNN that allowed for user submitted content that claimed a person had seen Jobs being taken to a hospital after having a heart attack. Other sites started to run wild with the rumor and it caused Apple's stock to take a rather large plunge. Here's an article covering it that turned up after a quick Google search.
That gives me an idea
If anyone sees an article about Steve Jobs coming back from the dead to lead Apple again, it's totally legit.
No one stole anything.
Some stock traders were tricked in to buying more Twitter stock because they thought it would rise further in the near future.
Huh ? Wall Street makes money from moving money. Every up and down move, the higher volume the more of it stays at WS.
The net result of this scam: some investors lost, some won, but traders made a commission. Twice, going up and going down.
http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.slashdot.org Errors found while checking this document as HTML5!
Spotted the problem right there. The stock market is not a tool for investment anymore: it's a gambling house and a system to extract wealth from long-term investors. Make it compulsory to hold one's shares for at least 6 months after purchase, and the problem solves itself. Of course, the fat cats don't want this, and they are the ones who have the actual power, so nothing will change.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
1. Buy stock in $LARGE_CORP, sit on it a while
2. Register bloomberg domain under generic, believable gTLD.
3. Create fake report about $LARGE_CORP being bought out at high valuation.
4. Spread fake article around social media.
5. Profit!
I think we finally found out what the value of ??? is.
No one stole anything.
Some stock traders were tricked in to buying more Twitter stock because they thought it would rise further in the near future.
Sure. Nobody stole anything. It's called stock manipulation, and if caught, someone will do a long jail sentence.
Just wondering, is that a limitation on free speech in general, or does it only apply to people who tried to profit off it?
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
If you can react quickly enough to buy before the stock price finishes going up, then even if it is a fake trend you'll still make money so long as you can sell it before it drops below the price you bought it at. Of course, any money you make is at the cost of someone who was less agile/informed/lucky than you. That's zero sum games for you (technically not exactly zero sum, but it's not like the true value of a company actually changes much in a day).
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
They WANT to react that quick. If you are working in milliseconds, this is what will happen and it encourages it.
Obviously the stockmarket will defend its own interest and that is the trading of the stock. As long as that is happening; why would they change it?
The stock market is just that: a market where they rent out space so you can sell your goods. They are not intrested if it is crap you are selling or great products. It is about volume.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
so you can see who bought and sold, right? so track it. and wipe the accounts of any who are complicit. zero it all out.
The problem with that idea is that the person who profited most may not be the person who set up the scam. If they have a clue, and they obviously do, they won't be the first to trade on the news, either. They'll wait for the graph to kick up a little before they trade. So how do you plan to identify them?
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
That's zero sum games for you (technically not exactly zero sum, but it's not like the true value of a company actually changes much in a day).
Stop calling the modern economy a zero-sum game. It is not. It is a negative-sum game. We are spending natural capital more rapidly than it is replenished. When we run out, the game ends, and we all lose.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Buy a good stock, wait until it goes up, then sell it. If the stock doesn't go up, don't buy it.