There is probably less cheating on the Pinks than the main exchanges these days, and at least with the Pinks its straightforward, readable, honest cheating.
A couple years ago I saw a pinksheet stock once go up 1000x in one day. And it was on real volume, too.
i remember in the summer of 2005 there was a penny stock that found out how to make stem cells from living humans own stem cells. went from like .40 cents to $6-7 bucks. it was even on the front cover of the New York Times the next day. It turned out to be crap, but was allways kicking myself i didnt buy it
Many years ago now I bought a few thousand dollars worth of stock of a company called "Nitrolube" an engine lubricant. I believed in the company, the product was sound, the shares were steadily going up then WHAM down 50% in a week. I held them for another year and made 25% in the end. There are much worse investments. Nearly every bank or broking house that trades these days would be a worse investment than Nitrolube. At least Nitrolube made a tangible product!