SPOOZ Inc (SPZI)

[shotsky]

It is called 'trading groups'. They pay both bashers and pumpers to elicit responses from stock message boards, in an attempt to influence stock price. It is strictly illegal, and it is next to impossible to identify these groups. Some have been caught and you can find the news about them if you search hard enough.
What is illegal is influencing stock price. It is not the company and it is not MM's. It is groups of traders, generally what we call 'whales'. They have many millions of shares, so making money is a matter of influencing the share price up or down to suit the current need.
The bashers/pumpers are paid by how many responses they receive from their activities. These responses are counted, and they are paid accordingly. No one reads those responses except US. So, any response to a basher is actually a 'vote', and the votes are counted, not read.