Geeks are busy hacking stocks these days

Geeks are busy these days playing around with the stocks of hot shot companies. Last 10 days were full of such scams. SEC is having a tough time finding out the real culprits as the news now snowballs in blogosphere and its difficult to point out the source.

That much we know from the mischievous email that was apparently sent out to Apple employees and that – naturally – quickly found its way into the tech-news cycle via the respected and highly trafficked tech site Engadget. The terse email said simply that the iPhone would be delayed to October from June and that the OS X Leopard operating software would not be released until January.

(Apple declined to offer any comment beyond reiterating that the email “wasn’t authentic” and that both the iPhone and Leopard are on track as previously announced.)

That was enough to cause Apple’s stock to tumble 5% from its morning high. Or close to 4-5 billion dollars of wealth was eroded.

Some who had shorted the stock would hve made a killing.

The real smart thing here was how the fake news was spread. It seems someone figured out how to send an email to Apple employees around the world, putting the familiar “Bullet News” in the from line (for Apple’s sake, one hopes this is not as simple as sending an email to “everyone@apple.com”).

So all you smart alecs. IT provides you a great way to play around with the stocks of big honchos. And while playing some serious money can be made. Its much rewarding than penny stuff as credit card fraud or looting atms. So time to rethink your priorities. 😀