Back in 2022 I got added to what was presented as a "verified" trading community. It looked legit. Organized, confident, everyone sharing "research," the whole thing wrapped in a layer of credibility that made it easy to trust.
It was a pump-and-dump group for microcap stocks. That's all it ever was. They'd coordinate everyone piling into some tiny stock, drive it up, and then the people running it would quietly exit at the top while the rest of us held the bag on the way down.
I only figured this out after losing a meaningful chunk of my capital on exactly one of those coordinated stocks. Watched it pump, felt great, then watched it collapse the moment the "community" had gotten what it needed from us. That's when the whole picture clicked into place.
I reported it. Did the responsible thing, flagged the group, laid out what was happening. And nothing happened. No consequences, no shutdown, nothing. The group is still active to this day, just running under a slightly different name now. Same operation, fresh label, still pulling in new people who think they've found a verified community. I got out with a lesson. They got to keep going.