You have to borrow stock to short it. The only person that owns worthless penny stock that's being pumped & dumped is the pumper and dumper, who will act to inflate the price more.
Highly recommended reading if you are ever tempted to take advantage of an apparent scam in progress: David Maurer's The Big Con, the hundred-year-old story of swindlers who stole tons of money by setting up fake stock scams, then luring bystanders into placing side bets on the scams-in-progress.
(This is the book that inspired the 1973 movie The Sting, but it's nonfiction.)
People still fall for the classic cons. Don't be one of those people.
(This is the book that inspired the 1973 movie The Sting, but it's nonfiction.)
People still fall for the classic cons. Don't be one of those people.