Interesting read FF,
That led me to another term I had not been aware of but suspected was a tactic used by shorters in collusion.
A Bear Raid.
In a typical bear raid, short sellers may conspire beforehand to quietly establish large
short positions in the target stock. Since the short interest in the stock increases the risk of a
short squeeze that can inflict substantial losses on the shorts, the short sellers cannot afford to wait patiently for months until their short strategy works out.
The next step in the bear raid is akin to a smear campaign, with whispers and rumors about the company spread by unknown sources. These rumors can be anything that portrays the target company in a negative light, such as allegations of accounting fraud, an SEC investigation, an earnings miss, financial difficulties, and so on. The rumors may cause nervous investors to exit the stock in droves, driving the price down further and giving the short sellers the profit they are looking for.