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Friday, January 29, 2021

WATCH NOW: Valpo man's 'joke' Tweet in GameStop market saga leads to false national story - nwitimes.com

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VALPARAISO — A Valparaiso man found it hard to believe Friday that what started out as a fake Tweet he posted about his supposed involvement in the GameStop market rally wound up as the focus on an online story by the New York Post.

In short, he said, the publication was duped into forming this Northwest Indiana connection to the GameStop story, which has gone viral across the world.

"I can't believe they bought this," said the 22-year-old Valparaiso resident. "It's very apparent this was a joke."

West, who described himself as a regular investor and a bit of an Internet junky, said it is not unusual for him to post fake Tweets as jokes. He said he opted to do so Wednesday after reading stories about the havoc caused by online-fueled purchases of GameStop and AMC stock.

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Jack West, 22, of Valparaiso.

The GameStop financial surge has rattled markets and made national news. 

GameStop stock rocketed from below $20 earlier this month to close at around $350 Wednesday as a volunteer army of investors on social media challenged big institutions who had placed market bets that the stock would fall. The action was even wilder Thursday when the stock swung between $112 and $483 before closing down 43.2% at $197.44. It then shot back up 60% in after-market trading.

West's Tweet made it appear he was participating in the action.

West said he joked in the Tweet that he "just took out a second mortgage on my parent's house while they were at work to buy more" AMC and GameStop stock. Let's goooo."

Twitter screenshot

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West said he included the stock stickers, which is how he is guessing the New York Post reporter got wind of his Tweet. The Tweet had just seven "likes" at the time he was contacted Thursday by the New York Post reporter.

West said he thought the Tweet would clearly be seen as a hoax considering it is not possible for him to obtain a second mortgage on his parent's home. But when the reporter pursued it as fact, West said he opted to see how far he could get with the joke.

It was not until 20 messages into the conversation that the reporter questioned how the mortgage could have been obtained, West said. West said he spun a tale that it was a small, local mortgage company carrying out business on Zoom because of the COVID-19 pandemic and that his computer camera was broken, preventing the company from seeing who it was dealing with.

"She (the reporter) believed that," West said. "She didn't even question it."

Expecting the interview to go nowhere, West said he was shocked to see the story post online a short time later featuring him. The story was then picked up by other news sources, and West said he was suddenly getting multiple requests for interviews.

"22-year-old risked parents' mortgage on GameStop: 'You only live once,' " the now archived story headline reads.

Messages left at the New York Post Friday seeking comment were not immediately returned.

Even after he revealed his original Tweet as a farce, the requests for interviews rolled in, he said.

He said the reporter from the New York Post later contacted him confirming the story was fake but said it was two hours later before it was taken down online.

"I do feel slightly bad," West said. "I didn't think any of this was going to happen."

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January 30, 2021 at 03:00AM
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WATCH NOW: Valpo man's 'joke' Tweet in GameStop market saga leads to false national story - nwitimes.com

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