, the scam is as old as the buttonwood tree at the foot of Wall Street, where the scammers presumably first gathered to scam, at least on this side of the water. A stock rockets to fame thanks to a dedicated community of cheerleaders who honestly believe they’ve stumbled on the next cherry-cherry-cherry. Euphoria! Then : reality! What goes up must come down. Cue the tears, the finger pointing, the ridiculous conspiracy theories to explain the stock’s demise. In the shadows lurk the scammers.
We’ll call the operation “Doug Hogue.” Because that’s what it calls itself. Our friend Doug, or rather, “Doug,” tracks the Twitter accounts of starry-eyed cult-stock investors. He’ll join their Twitter Spaces calls and offer attendees his sage trading advice in exchange for a cut of their future profits. With “Doug” by their side, they’ll soon be backstroking in money! We can all be Scrooge McDuck!As you may have guessed , nearly everything about “Doug Hogue” is a lie.
The victim then began to “trade” with “Doug” in “real time.” After a week, Spark Fusion locked the vic out of their funds and said they needed to upgrade their account to access them again. After depositing more funds the vic and “Doug” went back to trading. But again, the account was locked and additional funds were requested for an upgrade. Soon after that, “Doug” stopped returning messages and Spark Fusion’s customer support went AWOL.