I was in a trading group a few years ago that included a small fund manager. A group of traders got massively underwater on a penny stock so they banded together to generate a fake article regarding the company being bought out. They played it off to the trading group as if it were real, merely sharing the tweet from some "news site".
Funny thing, there was an error in the article. Let's just say the decimal was in the wrong place and not in their favor... Someone called it out in the group and many of us laughed about how shitty the company was to release the article in an attempt to pump the stock, with such an egregious error that created the exact opposite effect. A member of our group got very offended and unintentionally tipped their hand that they were the author... I left the group, they were reported to the SEC, but nothing happened.
Lots of shady shit goes on in the trading world, price targets, buy recommendations, sell recommendations, articles to create hype and fear. Only those who truly fuck the whales get in trouble. Trust nothing.