Marl Stock Robot - Important Information

[wallstreetsedge]

interesting info i discovered...


ive mentioned a few red flags that i mentioned about marl

red flag #1 - marl is a 20mb program when it is compressed, so in actuality he is roughly 30mb+ but why?

red flag #2 - marl supposedly keeps learning everytime you run it, but why when he is run as a 3rd party program that supposedly scans their picks or uses idle cpu power to analyze?

red flag #3 - marl supposedly scanned stocks in their database in ABC order but 'analyzing' was done in random order.

red flag #4 - analyzed stocks had random tickers with .pk or .ob thrown onto the end. if you look, youll find some interesting ones such as msft and nvda

red flag #5 - marl attempts to access the internet to analyze stocks and give you picks. but if you're not connected to the internet, he managed to give you different picks anyway!


because of that, i managed to find the source code for marl and had it dissected, i was right with all of the red flags. heres what i discovered...

marl doesnt analyze anything - but we all knew that

marl does have a .txt list of about 1000 different tickers to give you a random "analyzing stock"

marl's stock pick is actually a small handful of picks updated to him by the main server as a decoy when he gets a hold of an internet connection and the file is updated

marl displays 2 different messages when he gives you a stock pick. the 2 messages are:

- good potential stock trade
- undervalued

i guess the 2 messages were to make you feel warm and cozy seeing different things or perhaps to just throw people off

now for the good stuff, the real plan behind the stock picking robot wasnt to get people to buy the program and newsletters. the actual plan was to load up 4 trojan horses onto your computer and and display advertisements! - that's how they make their real money! they're quite harmless but quite nasty to get rid of.

here are the 4 programs that marl starts you off with:

1 - Hacktool.DoS - nasty little program that denies 3rd party services to put anything onto your computer - such as free online virus scanners, virus scan updates, and internet security updates.

2 - Downloader - downloads other programs that the person wants from their main server onto your computer - which in this case it's a bunch of advertising programs

3 - Trojan.Vundo - program that downloads and displays pop up advertisements on your computer.

4 - Adware.Purityscan - program that downloads and displays pop up advertisements on your computer.


as mentioned, theyre simple programs, no real threat, but a pain to get rid of. hacktools.dos starts up almost immediately after you turn your computer on so updating definitions or using a 3rd party scan is almost impossible unless you do everything manually. it also hides itself as a running process in the background with a false name so average users who think of using task manager see a complicated name and think nothing of it.

downloader actually creates a .exe program straight onto your c: drive which is simple to remove. it just requires deleting it.

the 2 trojan advertising programs as well as any others that may have been installed are hard to get rid of. they require you going into your registry and deleting the files manually.



smart, smart little monkeys...

[wallstreetsedge]

oh yeah, i also forgot to mention... smart monkeys...

when a 3rd party attempts to upload info to your computer, not only does marl deny it... but he'll also try to create a memory dump.. attempting to slow down your computer and prevent you from even bothering or crash your virtual desktop and start bar



smart smart little monkeys

[englishman26]

Very interesting. Thanks for that.

Well Marl: :thefinger:

[netwrangler]

I like the way you have summarized the information, KT.
Nevermind that much of that information was previously posted by Thierry

Here is another link to a blog with comments from users.


http://skeltoac.com/2007/11/27/marl-the-stock-robot-scam/

Especially interesting is this comment about the inner workings of the software:

http://skeltoac.com/2007/11/27/marl-the-stock-robot-scam/#comment-1479

And by OutlawPajamas
I am not a trader but enjoy fantasy sports and so decided to join the Wall Street Survivor fantasy profile contest because college football is over and I need a fix. Now, I know nothing about penny stocks or trading or anything of that nature but I enjoy victory so I set out to learn all that I needed to know this evening. It seemed to make sense to me that I should look for stocks that I could buy at a reasonably low price that might have the potential to balloon rather than buy Google or Monsanto or something that is valuable but probably won't make me a ton of money in the short run. You all may be snickering at this but it seems logical to me and in my search I came to an add with an irresistible robot image (I have a sick addiction to sci-fi) and my curiosity was piqued (if I had been born a cat, nine lives would not have cut it). The add was inviting to any nerd but I am no fool and so set out to get the lowdown on Marl. My detective work lead me to this discussion after first coming here http://skeltoac.com/2007/11/27/marl-the-stock-robot-scam/ which explains the identity of Michael (I do not want to be around when Karma gets a hold of this guy). Just in case my link does not work here is what I think is important to know about Alex "Michael"...

Paul
Posted December 16, 2007 at 11:35 am | Permalink

doublingstocks.com and pokerbobby.com are both registered with GoDaddy.

I checked the whois info for both, and found the Admin and Tech contacts for both sites are the same:

Hunter, Alex hunter.alex@gmail.com
fusionwebspace
12 Well Ridge Close
Red House Farm
Whitley Bay,
Tyne and Wear
NE25 9PN
United Kingdom
07835191190

That’s in the UK folks, not in Seattle - and explains the 44 code in the phone number (+44 is the international code for the UK).

I used http://192.com to search for “Hunter” at the “NE25 9PN” post code, and found two people from the 2002 - 2006 electoral roll: Brian J Hunter and June D Hunter.

So either Alex doesn’t exist, or he hadn’t reached 16 years old by 2006, or this is some relative’s address (eg, his mum+dad’s house).

Don’t send them your money. You’re being scammed.:roll:

I am sorry for such a long post when I have never posted here before but I just cannot believe that anyone could argue that this is not an obvious scam or think that they may be able to benefit from the scheme. The only people that will make money are Alex (Michael) the pre-teen scammer and whatever evil minions he has paid to troll these sites and defend his scam. He is truly pure evil with even his own pyramid scheme http://www.business-opportunities.biz/2007/05/07/perfect-wealth-formula/.

There is one more thing before I leave the world of high finance behind me forever. Someone mentioned that when you give your billing information, it may be stolen for future identity theft and I sure would not put it past "Micalex" so if you bought the newsletter or some form of Marl, I would write a letter to the credit reporting agencies as soon as possible and put a watch on your accounts. It can never hurt to play it safe, especially when you are dealing with prepubescent masterminds. Good luck to you all but I think I will stick with my poverty rather than continue my financial education, scammers do not have much interest in the very poor at least I hope they don't.
Your summary definitely has some 'value added' to the above posts.

Much of the discussion of marl focuses on whether this is a 'pump and dump' scheme. I'd like to suggest a more nefarious business model:

Marl scams the companies promoted by charging a $2500 'promotion' fee. Lord knows what kind of promises were required to make that happen.
Marl scams the 'subscribers' by charging a fee to learn, essentially, which firms have paid Marl for promotion.
Oh, by the way, when you install Marl, you also install some malware that presents pop-up ads on your computer.
The pop-up ads point to sites that give Marl click-and-pay revenue.

Sweet!

There could be a 'pump and dump' involved, but that would be just gravy.

Good job, KT, on bringing most of these elements together.

[wallstreetsedge]

thanks.. i covered the pop up info though.. but its a bit more complex than that considering theyre trojans

[netwrangler]

thanks.. i covered the pop up info though.. but its a bit more complex than that considering theyre trojansMore complex, perhaps, but certainly not unexpected.

Frankly, these trojans and pop-ups are the parts of the puzzle I was missing.
Looks like you were missing the part about marl [& co] charging for 'promoting' the stock.

This 'promotion' — which doesn't require any of the more complex manipulations inherent in a true 'pump and dump' — sets up the money machine.
Moreover, because 'pump and dump' is not an essential element of the scam, attacks based on an assumption that there is a 'pump and dump' scam going down can be parried at least, and turned into publicity at best.

Again, I will say that I really don't intend to post in these marl threads.
Every time I do so, I feel like I am aiding their cause.
Beyond that, all the time taken to construct posts in the marl threads is time not spent posting in more constructive areas.

So, whatcha say KT, how would you play options on AAPL next week? That sounds like a much more constructive subject for us to discuss.

[wallstreetsedge]

as for aapl, i already jumped in and out of aapl calls today.

i did leave 20% of my calls in there but im looking to get out before earnings and probably buy more puts. i still own a ton of puts. i think aapl pulls down to 140

[aiki14]

Hey Kthom, Weren't you buying and posting the Marl stocks about 2 weeks ago? Now you're figuring out it's a scam. Well done. People here have been on to the SCAM since sept. How many people we're victimized because you promoted Marls picks here? Maybe not many, but who knows. You should have known better yet you didn't, now you're gonna be a crusader. A real pro would have spotted DOUBLING STOCKS and MARL as a SCAM in 2 seconds, yet you were here pumping them, just like the newbies.
I guess I should be glad you've figured it out.

[Maverick_Investor]

I find all this Marl chat darkly amusing, as it goes.

On what is otherwise an intelligent, friendly, forward-looking forum, here we have five of the top six threads devoted to a $144 scam, and no fewer than...

613 Posts!!!

(That number has almost certainly gone out of date between me starting this post (number 614?) and hitting Submit!)

Anyone feel like moving on to more positive, profitable territory?

[wallstreetsedge]

Hey Kthom, Weren't you buying and posting the Marl stocks about 2 weeks ago? Now you're figuring out it's a scam. Well done. People here have been on to the SCAM since sept. How many people we're victimized because you promoted Marls picks here? Maybe not many, but who knows. You should have known better yet you didn't, now you're gonna be a crusader. A real pro would have spotted DOUBLING STOCKS and MARL as a SCAM in 2 seconds, yet you were here pumping them, just like the newbies.
I guess I should be glad you've figured it out.

if you go back to my first post about marl that i ever wrote.. i wrote that i didnt believe it did any real analysis. the point of the posted positions was to see if a crap robot could outperform the average joe

a pump and dump = possibly

but the real scheme behind it is the advertisement programs that it uploads

[Feliciano]

OK people. Everyone's been very smart and figured out it's a scam. But it took everyone a while.

IF YOU LOOK CAREFULLY, you will find that the webpage itself tells you it's a scam!

Click on the 'disclaimer' at the bottom of the page. In the 'important warning' section (and what a suitable title that is, they're actually warning you that it's a scam!) you will find that:

- they are charging companies to promote them
- the names the two guys use are not their real names
- the testimonials are false (faux)
- they are committed to protecting the privacy of the identity of the 'programmer' and 'trader' (because they don't exist)
- you shouldn't expect results as good as theirs (so why buy the newsletter then?)
- Then there's the following line from the next paragraph:
ANY CLAIMS MADE OF ACTUAL EARNINGS OR EXAMPLES OF ACTUAL RESULTS ARE NOT TYPICAL.
..... wow.... so you mean the claims on the site have just been FABRICATED, or they picked out only the winning trades and put them on the site, right? Because normally, such results are not typical for their system. Enough said.

And that's just ONE paragraph and one line from the disclaimer! I pasted it below just so you don't have to bother going to their site again.

Also, none of the testimonial providers have their own website, and most don't even give an email address (except the one whose job is to scam you through his emails.) The house in Florida, as well as their phone number, could be anybody's - why would they give their real address if they are scamming people and the disclaimer says that they want to protect their identities?)

Some people have had great trouble getting a refund, because these guys have been giving them the runaround.

Try looking for the company registration info - it should exist, if it's a real company, right?

Just to find out if I could 'buy' Marl, I contacted support, and they quickly sent me an email to be 'one of 6 Marl testers', who would only have to pay $97 to download the program. Wow! What a discount from the original $28000 that the program is worth! Lucky me!
So now anyone can get Marl for under $100 instead of spending $28000! What a generous company!
Now if this doesn't have SCAM written all over it right from the start, then nothing does!

Fortunately they can be stopped, especially if you've had a problem getting a refund, because the attorney general normally takes legal action against company owners when several complaints have been filed.

So I've found out that in many cases, all you need to do in order to find out if something is a scam, is READ CAREFULLY what's on the website itself! You don't even have to go doing deep detective work! It's all there on the webpage.

Here's the part of their disclaimer I was referring to:

Information Warning: You need to understand that all information found on the DoublingStocks.com website and email newsletters (past, present, and future) exists for nothing other than general informational purposes. Is should also be noted that if you do choose to pay for a subscription to the apocryphal Michael Cohen’s email newsletter, the newsletter does occasionally accept compensation from publicly traded companies for advertising purposes. You should assume that all trading results featured on the DoublingStocks.com website and/or email newsletters are based on hypothetical or simulated performance results that have certain inherent limitations. Unlike the results shown in an actual performance record, these results do not represent actual trading. Also, because these trades have not actually been executed, these results may have under- or over-compensated for the impact, if any, of certain market factors, such as lack of liquidity. Hypothetical or simulated trading programs in general are also subject to the fact that they are designed with the benefit of hindsight. Both "Michael" and "Carl" are pseudynym names, used to protect the privacy of the actual programmer and trader whom created Marl. No representation is being made that any account will or is likely to achieve profits or losses similar to these being shown. Similarly, the faux testimonials may not be representative of the experience of other clients. The testimonials are no guarantee of future performance or success. Results may vary from those depicted. Such results may not be indicative of overall trading success. You should not expect to achieve results as good as those described in the testimonials.

[wallstreetsedge]

normally the people who do get involved in it are people looking for a quick escape... the same thing is true anywhere else.. whether its a stock program or even a diet program. everyone looks for a magical way to win and never choose to look deeper.

[smartinvestor30]

if you go back to my first post about marl that i ever wrote.. i wrote that i didnt believe it did any real analysis. the point of the posted positions was to see if a crap robot could outperform the average joe

a pump and dump = possibly

but the real scheme behind it is the advertisement programs that it uploads

But it's used by a top financial institution, but they only have a few spots open to sell it at $99, it normally goes for $30,000 or more


Yes, I downloaded it onto a old computer of mine to test the system because there was a discussion about it. I quickly figured out it didn't analyze anything but I didn't disect it to see what it actually did.

[wallstreetsedge]

yeah there were a lot of old posts.. i dissected it a while back, it has a several stocks and reasons to buy and it just picks it randomly...

also it has a couple of trojans in there producing popups

[lew26]

Can you send me the source code for Marl?

lew26@msn.com