Spam leads to suspension of securities

As many of you know I run a spam stock tracking site that is somewhat popular. For the most part these securities seem to get a pass regarding the spam. It is hard to tell who is pushing the spam and if the companies are directly responsible.

Looks like the Securities and Exchange Commission is finally taking a stand called "Operation Spamalot". According to this article they have suspended 35 securities due to the spam.

Just how obvious was the manipulation? From the article:

"In one case, shares of Apparel Manufacturing Associates Inc. (APPM) closed at 6 cents, with a trading volume of 3,500 shares on Dec. 15.

After a weekend spamming campaign distributed e-mails proclaiming "Huge news expected out on APPM, get in before the wire, we're taking it all the way to $1.00," trading volume on Dec. 18 hit 484,568 shares with the price spiking to over 19 cents per share.

The price reached 45 cents on Dec. 20, before falling back to 10 cents on trading volume of 65,350 shares on Dec. 27."

Thanks to daddy Dan for the heads up.

Update: Dan sent me a more detailed article. Here are a list of companies affected.