What is a boiler room?
"In business, the term boiler room refers to an outbound call center selling questionable investments by telephone. It usually refers to a room where salespeople work using unfair, dishonest sales tactics, sometimes selling penny stocks or private placements or committing outright stock fraud."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiler_room_(business)
"A boiler room is a place or operation—usually a call center—where high-pressure salespeople call lists of potential investors ("sucker lists") to peddle speculative, sometimes fraudulent, securities. Sucker lists identify victims of previous scams."
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/boilerroom.asp
"These boiler room “employees” are usually sitting in one large building somewhere that was only rented for a few weeks and several and sometimes hundreds of these “salespeople” are making cold calls all day trying to pressure people into purchasing the best stock investment to come along in years."
https://www.fraudguides.com/telemarketing/boiler-room-schemes/
"People used to run stock schemes out of boiler rooms. That’s the myth anyway.
Others say it’s called a boiler room scheme because of the high-pressure tactics these salespeople use. And then there are those who claim it got its name from these operations cramming in as many phones and cold callers as possible into tiny offices.
Whatever the origin, the purpose of these schemes remains the same…
Insiders, boiler room operators, and other affiliates sell shares of a selected stock. It’s usually an OTC or pink sheet. The goal to inflate the price then dump their shares into the liquidity they’ve artificially created."
https://stockstotrade.com/boiler-room-operation/
"Boiler room schemes are large-scale operations designed to lure in as many investors to an investment scam as possible, often using high-pressure sales tactics. Boiler room scheme operators may cold call investors or solicit investors through emails, text messages, social media, and other means"
https://www.investor.gov/introduction-investing/investing-basics/glossary/boiler-room-schemes
"When a boiler room takes a company public, everything looks the same except that the broker-dealers aren’t working with experienced investment banks. They have also not performed their due diligence or researched the underlying prospects to see if the company is solid."
https://fraudeatsstrategy.com/2021/01/26/beware-of-the-boiler-room-pump-dump-schemes-explained/
"Boiler-room tactics are sometimes used to convince investors to overspend on the purchase of securities that are actually of lower value. The securities may, in fact, be worthless or nonexistent, and the funds that are raised are solely for the enrichment of the individuals behind the operation. A variety of fraudulent scams may be run through boiler-room schemes. This can include binary options fraud, advance fee fraud, and microcap fraud."
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/boilerroom.asp
"In a lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has accused two men of orchestrating an investment fraud scam that bilked at least 600 individual investors out of approximately $20 million.
According to the SEC’s complaint, Craig V. Sizer and Miguel Mesa offered fraudulent investments in two companies, Sanomedics, Inc. and Fun Cool Free, Inc., using boiler rooms to pitch penny stocks to potential investors."
https://www.zamansky.com/sec-issues-charges-20-million-boiler-room-scam-targeting-elderly-investors/
"Britons posing as Tokyo based investment brokers have launched a new ‘boiler room’ scam operation out of the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh seeking more pension victims in Australian and New Zealand."
https://www.andrew-drummond.com/2018/10/07/warning-bei-trading-boiler-room-scam-out-of-phnom-pen/
"The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced new charges arising from a New York-based boiler-room scheme, alleging that Benjamin Conde orchestrated the manipulation of millions of shares of Renewable Energy and Power, Inc. ("RBNW"), generating approximately $3.1 million in illegal proceeds."
https://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2019/lr24609.htm
"On June 11, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) announced that it has obtained final judgments by consent against Ronald Hardy, Anthony Vassallo, and Sergio Ramirez charged for their roles in a $10 million boiler room scheme. The SEC’s complaint, filed on July 12, 2017, alleged that Ronald Hardy and Anthony Vassallo, through boiler rooms they controlled, and together with Sergio Ramirez and other employees, engaged in a fraudulent scheme using threatening and deceitful sales tactics to pressure retail investors to purchase penny stocks"
https://www.securitieslawyer101.com/2020/sec-settles-with-three-defendants-in-boiler-room-scheme/
"Share and bond scams are often run from ‘boiler rooms’ where fraudsters cold-call investors offering them worthless, overpriced or even non-existent shares or bonds.
Boiler rooms use increasingly sophisticated tactics to approach investors, offering to buy or sell shares in a way that will bring a huge return.
But victims are often left out of pocket – sometimes losing all of their savings or even their family home.
Even seasoned investors have been caught out, with the biggest individual loss recorded by the police being £6m."
https://www.fca.org.uk/scamsmart/share-bond-boiler-room-scams