Stock Trading Scams

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Some of the frauds we investigated

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Review your case

Based on our experience, we are performing preliminary checks to assess whether your case can result in a substantial retrieval of losses.

Gather the evidence

We then gather every piece of evidence you have from your contact with the scammers along the way.

Investigation Report

We investigate your case and the people who scammed you to provide a detailed Investigation Report.

Action Plan

Get expert help to track and recover your lost crypto with a personalized approach.

Expert Assistance

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Once you successfully execute the action plan, you'll recover your lost funds.

Binary Options Scam: Retrieve Your Lost Funds

As you may be aware, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FBI have conducted an investigation into a number of recovery companies, including Payback. Payback fully cooperated with the authorities throughout their investigation, and we are pleased with their decision to return our website in order to resume our operations in the US.

This inquiry into Payback was an opportunity for us to perfect our product and services and ensure stricter compliance with applicable US law. We look forward to continuing our work helping victims of online scam get their money back.

Your money back guarantee

Retrieving your losses can be a lengthy process, and it all starts with our investigation. Therefore, we must have your trust every step of the way. So, if for any reason you are doubtful, you can ask for a full refund within 14 business days.*

We at Payback are committed to investigating each client’s case with the same level of diligence and determination. However, we’re just as determined to provide educational resources to raise awareness of stock fraud and teach people how to protect themselves.

How does the stock market work?

Stock markets are a form of centralized exchange where investors buy and sell ownership (stocks) of various companies. Most stock market exchanges are highly regulated and involve legal, regulatory oversight, and verified brokers to facilitate the transfer of stock from a seller to a buyer.

Examples of regulated stock exchanges are the US-based NYSE (New York Stock Exchange) and the NASDAQ (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations). Our daily use of these financial tools has never been more effortless, and the barriers to entry continue to fall.

But this ease of access is not without its dangers. We are all susceptible to different types of investment scams like investment and stock market fraud, so it is incumbent on us to do our due diligence and protect ourselves and our money from becoming victims of stock fraud and stock scams.

Is the stock market rigged?

One of the biggest questions and, for many, beliefs about the stock market is that it is rigged. It is true US stock markets are regulated by various government and non-government entities such as the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) and FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority), and in the UK stock markets have overlapping legal bodies that help maintain the integrity and reputation of major exchanges that facilitate the buying and selling of stocks. However, that doesn’t mean we can avoid risk and fraud scams.

Bad actors and poor regulations still abound. Some brokers have lied or participated in illegal accounting and business practices, such as over-promising their investment return potential and misusing client funds for high-risk strategies and fraud. In fact financial-themed crime is now at historic daily levels worldwide.

You can even recognize online stock brokers that do not practice their fiduciary responsibility and abuse their clients – and most regulators have even published lists of their top shady 2023 complaint offenders. While there are obvious risks in the financial markets, many people looking to take advantage of them while investing can avoid majority of brokers and exchanges operate in a legitimate, ethical and legal way.

Key points

Avoid persons or entities that approach you with phrases like “investment opportunity,” “guaranteed return” or anything else that sounds too good to be true.
Avoid high-pressure sales tactics and advertisements – if you didn’t look for the company on your own, be extra cautious.
Do your own due diligence – trust yourself, avoid listening to others for what to buy and what to sell. Speak with a registered financial advisor.
Learn the basics – Learn Dow Theory 101 and understand what a bear market is and what bull market trends look like. Know the core indicators of investing: learn about investing in indices and proven diversified stocks like those in the conventional basket of blue-chip stocks.

Types of Securities fraud

Ponzi Schemes

Perhaps the most well-known variation of a stock fraud scheme in history is a Ponzi scheme. A Ponzi scheme involves paying investment profits to old investors with the deposits of new investors. When a new investor joins the system, a small piece of what another investor earned temporarily pays off the next investor. What makes Ponzi schemes so successful is the perceived legitimacy and history of returns. Ponzi schemes can run for years without redress.

In the case of Bernie Madoff, his Ponzi scheme and fraud empire lasted for over 20 years. He was so successful at this fraud that he first even became one of the leading market advisors on Wall Street and was a former chairman of the NASDAQ (which seems extremely real), because there is more enough new investor money to keep paying off old investors. Some of the “leaders” or principles within a Ponzi scheme use financial vocabulary, relationships with high-net worth individuals, and “innovative,” “delinquency-resistant,” small, profitable hedge fund (speculative) fund, or any other form of “too good to be true” sales pitch.

Pump and Dump

Pump and Dump (sometimes referred to as P&Ds) scams are perhaps one of the oldest and persistent forms of stock fraud that exist. The word pump and dump sounds challenging to detect it is; they can sometimes also be legitimate. What the fraudster is usually doing is promoting a very small (penny stock) firm that no one has ever heard of with a new “story” they made up about how the stock is an emerging tech firm about to blow, indeed, not much like what Apple and Microsoft once looked like when first on the market.

The fraudster acquires stock in the fake company privately or gets it listed on a regulated exchange like the NASDAQ and bought through a regulated stock broker. The stock price is almost always between $1.00 to $10.00; how a pump and dump works is straightforward: The scammer purchases the cheap stock early then begins to campaign on its behalf and drum up support and attention. As new investors buy, the price starts to spike up and eventually peaks. That is when the originators of the scam all exit their position or a significant part and offload the expense of yourself and everyone else who bought too late.

Penny Stock Scams

Along with pump and dump scams, penny stock scams are among the oldest and most well-known forms of stock fraud. Penny stock scams and pump and dumps often work hand in hand with pump and dump scams utilizing penny stocks. Penny stock scams are often touted as ways to bypass the more conservative vetting stock of lower-priced shares and invest in companies whose in the future — the definition of a get rich quick scheme. The phrase “Penny Stock” doesn’t necessarily mean that the stock is worth pennies – today, it generally means a very low-value stock.

However, modern penny stock scams have increasingly used stocks that are not available from the major traded companies like the NYSE or NASDAQ. Instead they are more found on the Pink Sheet or the OTC market (Over the Counter). OTC securities are not always available through registered Stockbrokers as they are thinly traded (low volume) and require that customers can either select those stocks to buy directly or go through another non-centralized broker/exchange.

Stock Broker Fraud

Stock broker fraud is, thankfully, one of the forms of fraud that has decreased in recent decades because there are regulated broker-dealers and most stock platforms now are also regulated. However, the old physical, paper securities or depository card with running “only long positions” no longer exist as people can buy and sell instantly via online trading systems and platforms.

One of the most prevalent (and, sometimes legal) forms of stockbroker fraud in the past was “front-running,” where large investment advisors would see which securities people were placing trades for and then use their internal house money to front-run the market. This increases the order himself before assisting your order. The broker essentially enters the market, makes his trade, before completing your order and collects the resulting small differential.

The other problem with front-running is it is nearly impossible to detect, with no manner of regulatory red flag (hint: it doesn’t trigger a fraud complaint or flag). That is why it is tightly regulated under today’s regulations and limitations. It’s one of the tactics that stockbrokers will use without necessarily facing much scrutiny if they work for retail investors who are requesting high-frequency bridging or low balances, widespread apportioning of dividends, and unclear rules or fees associated with shorting.

Boiler Room Scams

If you have ever seen the movie The Wolf of Wallstreet then you have seen what a boiler room is. Jordan Belfort’s (Wolf of Wallstreet) company employed hundreds of ‘brokers’ who called prospective investors to buy stock in individual companies – often overvalued but cheap companies. The ‘broker’ used highly emotive sales tactics that made the potential investor fear they would be missing out on an opportunity of a lifetime (FOMO – Fear Of Missing Out).

While the days of call-center type boiler rooms like those in The Wolf of Wall Street no longer exist, that doesn’t mean the concept has gone away. It’s evolved. Instead of boiler rooms, we now have shillers (on the website Reddit), private/public forums and message boards, emails, text alerts, fraudulent websites, fake webinars, automated social media generation (on Twitter, Facebook, and StockTwits (Twitter version for stock traders)). Modern boiler room operations are now more prevalent than their old counterparts, and they continue to grow and become more sophisticated.

Signal Providers

Signal providers are companies or individuals which want you to subscribe to their frequent notifications which will give you a stock to buy or short, what the stock price entry is, where to take profit and where to place a stop loss or trailing stop. While this kind of service sounds fantastic and appears like a good deal, signal providers are only after one thing: your subscription, and is another one of the potential stock scams.

Almost all signal providers are just nicer versions of scammers and fraudsters who are able to operate and peddle their service in a legal way. You may also come across signal providers who offer their services for free. Signal providers who provide a free service are often already involved in Pump and Dump schemes. They entice new traders and investors into thinking that they’re getting a great deal by feeding them information – when all you are really doing is acting as a liquidity tool to pump up a stock that the provider has every intention of dumping as soon as its price spikes higher.

Can you get your money back after a stock trading scam?

If you’ve lost money due to a stock market scam, don’t worry, there is a solution. Our Stock Trading Scam Investigation services can empower you to uncover the truth behind the scam and expose the perpetrators.

We’ll help you gather crucial information about the individuals or companies responsible and provide you with a comprehensive investigation report outlining our findings and an action plan with proper next steps to retrieve your money. Take control of your situation and don’t let scammers get away with your investments.

Stock Scam And Fruad Scam

What is SEC Rule 10b-5?

SEC Rule 10b-5 simply states that it is unlawful to commit fraud or deceit on anyone. This involves practices listed above, but it also includes untrue information and even information that is omitted.

Is it illegal to manipulate stocks?

When it comes to the stock market’s regulatory and legal side, few words are as broad in their definition and meaning as manipulation. Stocks are always manipulated by large and small entities in (mostly) legal and ethical ways – that is the stock market’s nature. But some forms of stock manipulation are illegal, like front running and naked short selling. Naked short selling is the shorting of a stock without borrowing the underlying stock to short. A recent example of this is the percentage of short interest in GameStop by hedge funds in early 2021 – hedge funds were short 130% of GameStop’s float. In other words, hedge funds had 30% more shares short than are available.

Is the stock market a pyramid scheme?

No, the stock market is not a pyramid scheme. Like those who run Ponzi schemes, some fraudsters run pyramid schemes – but the stock market itself is not a pyramid scheme.

How can we help you with retrieving your money?

Start by getting a free consultation call, and we will explain how our Investigation Report and suggested Action plan helped thousands of people to retrieve their losses after a scam, and how they can do the same for you.

Let’s start your investigation!

Get in touch and our team of experts will work tirelessly until they provide you the tools you need to get your money back.

Retrieve your money from a scam!

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The types of scams we can help you with

Binary Options

Digital Currency

Forex

Property scams

Credit card phishing

Stock trading

Romance

Other scams

More about Payback and our Fraud Investigation Services

About Payback

PayBack has only one mission: to protect people from frauds and scams online worldwide, whatever it takes. We help victims of online fraud retrieve what is rightfully theirs using our Investigation Reports and tailored Action plans. Although several types of scams have stood the test of time and are constantly growing in number of victims, new scams constantly pop up. Our job is to stay updated on both old and new scams to help the victims and inform our clients on how to stay safe in the future. We aim to be the number one company in the world to whom people can turn when they try to protect themselves from scams or when they need the tools to fight back after being a victim.

How do Our Investigation Reports help retrieve losses?

Very often, recovering losses from a scam doesn’t require a lawyer, court, or the legal system in general. Processes such as ADR allow one to retrieve money lost to a scam without a lengthy legal procedure. Yet to do that, one needs to be familiar with the ADR process, with the intricacies of the bodies involved, and armed with the needed evidence. This is where our Investigation Reports come in handy. The investigation report not only finds and gathers all the needed evidence in one place, but it also provides a suggested Action Plan that guides our clients through the retrieval processes (such as ADR) and shows them step-by-step how to navigate them and what exactly they should do to retrieve their losses.

Do all cases end with a successful outcome?

Unfortunately, no. For example, some scams involve people taking cash from their victims. Such cases rarely have a successful outcome, and we make sure people who come to us with such cases know it. It is very important to us to be transparent with our clients, and we make sure to give them an honest and straightforward assessment of their case and what we believe they can expect in terms of retrieval of losses. So, if we believe you can do nothing to retrieve your money, we will tell you so immediately.

How do I know if I have a chance of retrieving my money?

This is exactly why our “Free consultation call” practice is in place. It gives you a chance to tell us what happened and get our initial thoughts free of charge. Once we present our opinion and similar cases we’ve dealt with before, you can make a more educated decision about whether our services are for you or not. So, before making a decision, secure a free consultation, and let’s move on from there.

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