Brit twins in ‘$1.2m stock scam probe’

Twins Alexander and Thomas Hunter were just 16 years old when they devised the “elaborate” online scam that fooled around 75,000 people, US officials say. In 2007 the brothers allegedly invented a fictitious “stock picking robot” and claimed on a series of websites that the highly sophisticated computer trading programme could identify stocks that were poised to rocket in value. They then targeted thousands of unsuspecting investors, mainly in the US, selling them “home versions” of the bogus software - named Marl - and an annual subscription to a newsletter that listed the programme’s stock recommendations, it is said. However, the stocks were not generated by any technical analysis and were in fact those of companies the brothers were paid to promote, asserts the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), who has brought the civil action.