Who couldn't use a tip on a hot stock? Be warned: When the tip comes unsolicited in your e-mail inbox, it's probably a scam.

The 'pump-and-dump' scam is a common form of spam these days. According to the United States Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), spammers send 100 million of these e-mail messages per week!

How pump-and-dump scams work

Scammers buy stock in a small company, often with stock prices of only a few dollars per share. Then they send out millions of e-mail or text messages across the globe to encourage recipients to buy that stock. These messages can even be disguised as confidential information that was sent to the recipient by mistake.

When enough people buy the stock, the price of the stock goes up. When the price is high enough, the spammers sell their shares. The price goes back down, and people who purchased the stock as a result of the tip suffer.

It can be difficult to find out who's behind pump-and-dump e-mail scams. That’s because spammers can take control of large numbers of computers and turn them into zombies that can work together as powerful 'botnets' to send the spam messages out.

What you can do to avoid pump-and-dump scams

•	Use spam filtering technology.
•	Don't make investment decisions based on anonymous e-mail or text messages you receive.
•	Don't open attachments in unsolicited e-mails. To avoid being caught by spam filters, stock spam usually is sent as an image or as a PDF attachment.
•	Use an Internet service provider (ISP) or e-mail provider that has implemented Sender ID Framework, a technical solution to detect and block spoofed e-mail.

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Articles obtained from Microsoft.com