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National

Penny-Stock Spam Yields Profits -- for Some

A new study suggests that spam e-mails advertising penny stocks can have a real effect on the stock market. And someone is making good money as a result -- though it's not usually the recipients of the spam. When people respond to the e-mail by buying the advertised stock, it can bump up the price of the stock.

That's when spammers -- who bought the stock before they sent the email -- sell. Robert Siegel talks with Laura Frieder of Purdue University about her study.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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