Marl the Stock Trading Robot and the "Doubling Stocks" newsletter SCAM

"Marl" the stock-picking robot and the Doubling Stocks Newsletter are a newer reincarnation of the centuries' old pump and dump scam.

A pump and dump scam works by tricking a large group of potential buyers into believing that a stock (usually a micro-cap stock or as it is commonly known, a "penny stock") is undervalued and hence can be obtained at a bargain price and later sold at profit. Exploiting people's greed, the low-cost of internet advertising and the high volatility of penny stocks, Marl's DS newsletter, with it's large number of paid and free-trial subscribers, is taking this old fraud scheme to a whole new level.

The scammers, represented by the fictitious Michael Cohen, offer a subscription to their "Doubling Stocks" Newsletter for $47 (one time fee only! wow, how cool is that! no monthly fees!). They also offer a "trial" membership to their newsletter for 2 weeks. Note that after the two weeks had passed they will try to sign you up for the $47 paid newsletter but if you don't subscribe they keep sending you the stock picks anyway. Why? Because they don't care about the 47 bucks - what they want is a large audience for their newsletter in order to be able to move the price of the stock quickly.

A stock pick is then sent to the subscribers and free-trial subscribers in the email, usually on Monday morning. Subscribers begin buying the stock. Price, naturally, goes up. In the mean time "Michael" and Co, who had already loaded up on the stock the week before, begin dumping their supplies. Those subscribers who get in early and get out quickly have a chance of making some money - the rest are left holding the bag, having bought a stock which was artificially "pumped" and will inevitably drop back to initial levels or even lower, often within a couple of hours. A simple investigation of Marl's previous trades, claimed to be profitable and listed on the doubling stocks home page will show that this is exactly what happens to all of Marl's ticker picks.

Nice scheme, huh? But wait, it doesn't stop there! A few weeks down the road the newly subscribed member is sent a "special offer" email: "Hi there dear sucker, now that we know that you're willing to shell out 47 bucks for a bogus newsletter, here's a much better deal for you - we're looking for users to test the new beta version of Marl! Yep, the big expensive Marl (it "costs" $28,000 according to the doublingstocks.com home page!) can be all yours. See it, click it, test and play with it out of the comfort of your own PC! And not only that - you will be getting Marl's picks before everybody else (because you can run Marl anytime you like, no need to wait for the newsletter email anymore). But hurry - we only have room for 6 more testers left! So here's your chance - today only you can claim your copy of Marl for a measly $97. One time fee."

People actually believe this crap. And pay... "Wow. I can get Marl, the super-software that picks the winning stocks for the entire newsletter! Only $97!"

There was (and still is!) so much advertising about Marl on the net that it was inevitable that sooner or later seasoned traders and/or programers will also see it saw it and begin poking around and asking questions. The most comprehensive discussion (or disection rather) of the DS scam that I saw I found on the onlinetradersforum.com web site which is an independent online community of real traders. People who go there actually do trade stocks (some of them - for a living) and happen to know a thing or to about stocks, trading and various scams.

Inconsistencies on the doublingstocks.com home page (the picture of, supposedly, Carl and Michael, which is named "meandgary2.jpg", a bogus Seattle address of their office with a UK phone).

Inconsistencies on other related pages (##links coming soon: "poker bobby" and "Michael's Father" page) - ##use the internet archive (archive.org, a.k.a. "The Wayback Machine") to see what every major page on the net looked some time ago.

The stock pick is sent out on Monday morning. Why always on Monday? A bullish stock is a bullish stock, and the bullish patern may form on any day, at any time. So why Monday? Cause it gives them a whole weekend to send out 2-3 emails to their subscibers and make sure every single subscriber is on Red Alert - hey, be ready everyone, Marl has indentified the next winning stock. Look for his pick in your email first thing tomorrow morning...

Video testimonials which are so polished, fake and artificial, it's obvious that they have not been recorded by real memebrs. None of the videos mentioning anything about a stock trading robot, they only talk about the newsletter - and why is that is because the robot is a "new addition" to the scam. If you look at how this page changed over time (use the "wayback machine" site arcive.org ) you will see that it started with only the newsletter, operated by the greatest trader of all times - "Michael's father" (forget about Warren Buffet). And that is also why the story about Michael's father is appearing on various ##other pages all over the net.

The doublingstocks.com domain is owned by a known scammer, Tom/Alex Hunter, the "creator" of pokerbobby.com - a web site with VERY similar graphics and overall design to that of DS, and the idea behind the scam is practically the same (a robot software making you money, except that that time it was a poker-playing bot). Not surprisingly, pokerbobby.com is now shut down... You can go to a domain registrar like godaddy.com or register.com and do a whois search on both domains and verify this for yourself.

Marketing scheme is an obvious scam: hey, here's our newsletter, sign up now for only $47 bucks, one-time fee or test-drive it (free trial) for 2 weeks. By the way - if you don't sign up after the 2 weeks, we will still keep sending it because we make our money by pumping and dumping. The newsletter subscriptions are just a nice bonus. After 2 or 3 weeks the "special offer" pops up in your email: hey, we need "testers" and, tada, you qualify, so you can now "test" a new version of Marl! ONLY $97! Thank you, you now have been swindled out of $144 in total...

The "company" (if there is a company behind this at all) is selling mostly to Americans but is operating out of the UK, outside the reach of the FTC and Securities commission. (hence the UK "office number" on their page).

And the biggest argument explaining why this is a SCAM - The "Robot". The software that you get after paying the $97 is an empty shell with no real computing and technical analysis power under the hood. All it does is send 2 SQL queries to the doublingstocks.com database, one says "give me your entire list of penny stocks" (so I can scroll them on my screen pretending I am actually doing something), the other one is - "what's the winning stock ticker this time?" (so I can display it to the scam victims)... I personally examined all packets that "Marl" sends over the network (I used the WireShark packet analyzer, a windows port of Ethereal) and I can testify under oath that that's exactly what's going on.

One thing I can say - scammers are definitely evolving. Come think of it - this is probably the best scam around. A hyped, but not over-hyped sales copy which will successfully push the sale. Relatively clean page design, with none, or almost none, of the typical annoying pitch tricks found on most sites that try to sell you something useless. Perfect niche selection and perfect execution. And most importantly - some serious planning and an extensive network of equally corrupted micro-cap owners.

$ I have to give it to "Michael Cohen" - this is the most elaborate scams I have ever encountered online. Congratulations on being the #1 SCAMMER of the Internet, Michael! ... or Hunter... or whatever your real name is.

So what can we conclude of all this? Be cautious with what you buy on the net. Search google for people's comments on the product that you want to buy. Always try to find an independent review of a product or service (e.g. the forum thread at the OnlineTradersForum.com site). A dishonest or careless marketer can misinform you, either on purpose, just so they can get the sale; or involuntarily, due to negligence. A real user review is your best source of information. If it smells, if you have doubts - don't buy it. There's tons of good products and investment programs on the internet, so be selective.