110 NYSE MICRO-CAPS CURRENTLY SHOWING PUMP-AND-DUMP PATTERNS

ScamDunk identifies significant systemic exploitation in NYSE small-cap market segment January 31, 2026 — ScamDunk, an AI risk detection platform that helps retail investors spot signs of stock manipulation before they lose capital, has identified over 100 stocks currently trading on the NYSE American (AMEX) exchange of micro-cap listings that show manipulation signals commonly found in pump-and-dump schemes. ScamDunk analyzed 5,800 US-listed stocks and flagged 110 micro-caps ($50-300M market cap) as stocks showing signs of potential price and volume manipulation. Pump-and-dump schemes are a form of securities fraud that artificially inflates a stock’s price with coordinated promotional activity (the 'pump') before organizers immediately sell their holdings (the 'dump'), resulting in losses for late-stage retail investors. ScamDunk checks in real time whether a stock is currently showing signs of manipulation, allowing investors to check stocks that are currently being promoted or recommended to them on sites like Reddit, Telegram, Discord, Facebook, and X. In 2024, consumers in the United States reported losing approximately $5.7 billion to investment scams, which includes stock and other securities fraud. This figure represents more money lost than to any other single category of fraud, and the true amount is likely much higher due to underreporting. The typical victim of an investment scam reported a median loss of more than $9,000. ScamDunk’s analysis of NYSE American (AMEX) found: 6 Ticking Bombs: 6 stocks show very high risk scores of potential pump-and-dump schemes in the pump phase (volume growth and price movement with no news or business reasons that support these) and are CURRENTLY being promoted on social media 24 Smoking Guns: 24 stocks showed the most alarming combination of a classic pump-and-dump price curve (25%+ spike followed by a 20%+ crash within 15 days) and trading volume surges 3-5x the previous 30-day average. Early Warnings: An additional 66 stocks are currently on a "Watch List," showing massive volume explosions but no price drop yet—indicating they are likely in the "pump" phase. The highest risk is concentrated on the NYSE American (AMEX), where nearly 38% of micro-cap listings showed manipulation signals, compared to just 1.7% on the NYSE. This staggering disparity suggests that manipulators are specifically targeting the AMEX "tier" because its less-strict requirements provide a veneer of exchange-listed legitimacy while hosting the small, thinly traded companies most susceptible to price manipulation. "Micro-caps sit in a regulatory dead zone: they possess the legitimacy of a major exchange listing to attract retail capital, yet their market caps are small enough to be moved by coordinated campaigns that stay below the SEC’s priority threshold,” said Amir Mizroch, ScamDunk co-founder and a former Wall Street Journal technology editor. "The gap is about what regulators can prove versus what patterns reveal.” A recurring profile appeared across the high-risk set: micro-cap size, penny-stock pricing, and offshore corporate structures (primarily Cayman Islands or China domiciled holding companies). One case study involved the shares of a $7.2 million biotech shell company that spiked 47% in 72 hours on zero news, only to collapse 62% seven days later. The company had no analyst coverage and just $180,000 in quarterly revenue. About ScamDunk Founded by veterans of banking, technology and financial journalism, ScamDunk is a data-driven risk detection platform that helps retail investors spot signs of stock manipulation before they lose capital. By scanning U.S. equity markets in real-time, ScamDunk distills 100 days of trading history and SEC filings into a simple HIGH, MEDIUM, or LOW risk score. Unlike database-reliant services, ScamDunk uses proprietary AI driven financial modeling to detect "live" anomalies in price, volume, and liquidity that precede a crash. ScamDunk makes institutional-grade market surveillance accessible to the everyday trader. Data available upon request: Ticker list of 110 flagged stocks, the 66-stock "Early Warning" list, and detailed methodology documentation. Media Contact: Amir Mizroch Co-founder, ScamDunk amir@orangegrovecomms.com