Yea, the only place I have ever done pump and dump tactics is in my gaming. It not only is way to risky but also hurts people in the real life when they are losing a lot of money just to make other people a lot of money... sad when you think about it.
At least there are things like social media... ie... Steemit that have the power to warn people about these groups.
I am on my way to check out the post you talked about. Have a good one, always good to see your posts.
EDIT: I thought I was going to a Steem post but none the less the link was a great bit of information on how to stay safe. As well as all the more reason to stay away from pump and dump people.
From what I Learned a lot of those pump and dump groups are formed by people who have an immense amount of the coins they are "pumping and dumping". Most of the time they bought them long before they even started forming groups. I have seen people do this in games as well as in stock market prices. Although now a days in the real world you could be looking at prison time if you are caught using these types of schemes.