There have been som egood posts on many boards regarding basher tactics and who is behind them. There are websites dedicated to divulging the names and pen names of well known bashers.
There are essentially three varieties of bashers. Many of these clowns sit in boiler room/bull pen offices and are paid per post of by the hour to post their BS.
The first type are low level bashers, not too savy, not to smart, just mina birds repeating a mantra.
The second tier are a little smarter, have some knowledge of trading rules, will quote things that are based in half truths, and for the ill experienced can sound convincing.
The third variety are called, "silver tounged devils", and for good reason. They will barrage you with technical knowledge from everything from SEC rules, Finra, legalese, you name it...they are smart, well paid and relentless, and have chosen a career path on the dark side of the market.
At all levels these guys pride themselves a goading folks into a war of words. The more controversy that surrounds a stock the more likely leary investors will be to pull out.
The companies that run these operations have names that sound like real trading houses but they are far from that.
They a real scum. A room full of phones and computers one day, and empty space the next. Very hard to police them, and they are funded by very well capitalized hedge funds, often by foreign money with layers of security to keep investigators from finding who the puppet masters really are. Talk about terrorist...you have no idea. Where do you think the Saudi's and other middle easterners put their oil money? They manipulate our system from 10,000 feet while using foot soldier, mercenaries, ie. some kid on your block, to do their dirty work....
Fun hunh? The SEC and all the federal agencies just can not keep up, no way, not ever. And don't think these guys don't own a politician or two...scary stuff...and they know there is no way to stop them, by and large anyway. The feds will always manage to make a bust or two, but how many get every day away scott free?