Agreed, I fail to glean from the article how people "got scammed". Were they told Apple stocks would continue to rise? what I would like to find out is whether

Agreed, I fail to glean from the article how people "got scammed". Were they told Apple stocks would continue to rise? what I would like to find out is whether they were market making and hedging what they were selling to their clients or rather taking short positions and selling clients long positions. They stand to gain little if they were just market making -- I suspect they must have taken some middle ground to make a profit.