The difference here is that the people left holding the bag are nominally the short sellers, not anyone being conned into buying the stock. There is a risk that you could hold it too long, i.e. past when they've closed their positions, but that risk is known up front and you're not deceiving anybody.
An interesting resolution to this would be if GameStop would allow the short sellers to close their positions by selling them newly minted shares. The result would be that the company would get all the money instead of the shareholders. But the shareholders own the company. So the share price would only crash by half (from the dilution) instead of 99% or whatever it is now.
Which would also have the effect of saving the company.
An interesting resolution to this would be if GameStop would allow the short sellers to close their positions by selling them newly minted shares. The result would be that the company would get all the money instead of the shareholders. But the shareholders own the company. So the share price would only crash by half (from the dilution) instead of 99% or whatever it is now.
Which would also have the effect of saving the company.