Stay Away From Get Rich Quick Schemes

Most people bristle at having to spend more money on gas and car expenses because of commuting to work in another city or state, when the expenses noted at the end of the year trump the sum total of the national debt. For these reasons and more, who wouldn’t want to earn money “the easy way.”

Unfortunately, many get rich quick schemes are really too good to be true. They are scams, and they are often meant to humiliate, embarrass and steal the identity of the person being scammed. They target definite vulnerable demographic segments of the population, such as the elderly or disadvantaged. And as bad as this gets, they also trick highly educated and Internet savvy people too into believing that they can make money fast on these programs. Below are twenty of the most popular get rich quick schemes to avoid.

1. Internet business opportunities

Be careful here because if they require down payment to become a “partner” the person paying the fees could be stuck being liable for a business which is later sued on various merits unknown to the new “investor.”

2. High Yield Investment Programs

People who are not willing to meet face to face. While these are often risky investments, many of them are Ponzi schemes so be careful when someone suggests you jump on board the next hot thing.

3. Microcap Scams with Penny Stocks

These are securities sporting low prices issued by small companies which guarantee big returns. Many people invest in them because they find a tip telling them to buy the stock on a forum or investment blog. Truth is, many of these tips are plants meant to drive the price of the stock up so that initial investors, scammers, make money. Investigate any company before investing in them.

4. Buying real estate and “flipping” a home DIY style

Some people made quite a bit of money flipping houses, others lost everything. Make sure the market in the area being considered for the flip has actually rebounded first before buying a foreclosed home or one on short sale for the best chance of seeing real returns on resale.

5. Investing in a company when a sales rep has secret inside information

The movie Wall Street was based on this concept and it is the very thing that Martha Stewart went to jail for. Information that comes from insiders may be illegal so do not get involved in this type of transaction without understanding the nature of the info being offered “for a price.”

6. Stuffing envelopes at home

This includes writing letters, backing envelopes or other envelope jobs from rogue companies which offer pennies (or even a tenth of a penny) on the dollar for each envelope “stuffed.” It will take thousands to make any money and this usually results in the person paying for the privilege of working for a few dollars a day.

7. Books/Seminars/Conferences/Webcasts

Which promise you’ll earn big in real estate/marketing/business/the stock market understand that these people make their money up front by taking payment for the people who attend the conference or meeting. What they say after you have paid for your ticket does not matter and in many cases are complete fabrications on the truth of what happens in that particular industry.

8. Ponzi schemes

The name Bernie Madoff might immediately come to mind, there are other Ponzi schemes to watch out for. Traditional Ponzi schemes take money to one investor to provide returns for another while lining the pockets of the scam artist. Eventually, the money is gone and investors lose out.

9. Selling magnetic “power bracelets” to people in your community who play sports

These have not been uniformly proven to enhance performance so don’t push them on friends, neighbors and family members just yet. You may be stuck with boxes of inventory (bracelets) and no outlet to sell them off to others at the end of the day.

10. Pyramid schemes

These include any scheme where you buy something, are encouraged to get 12 more people “under you” to do the same and you have to encourage them to each bring in 12 more people. Remember, you are never going to really be on the top of this mountain, you are only one of 12 people someone else brought in and will never get much money from this effort (but you may lose some friends over it).

11. Getting paid for Pay Per Click ads online

Understand that these ads are going to make someone rich, but it is not the person who is not owning the website. If you are a writer of a blog and have PPC ads, you will see pennies on the dollar as a result of your creative effort and the webmasters usually put the ads on which they prefer, not which you would rather see adjacent to your content.

12. Getting paid to write reviews online

These include book reviews, reviews of movies or restaurants or the like will never pay out big money in the long or short run. This is because the reviewers are offering their opinion and some never even see the movie, so the reviews are inaccurate and are paid accordingly.

13. Mystery shopper

Mystery shopper sounds like a great job so there are a plethora of websites that promise to help you get started in this field. However, these sites sometimes make the person interested in doing this part time job buy a list of which stores offer the service locally, so you spend money before you can even make money.

14. Putting together jewelry or “hand work” at home

These jobs offer the chance to work from home putting together jewelry or furniture and never pay well enough to make it work it to do the service of assembling items for someone else who will make good money once the materials are sold to others.

15. Online writing jobs which ask for your personal information in exchange for up front advances for work to be performed in the future

If this sounds too good to be true, it usually is. For this reason and others, no one should ever be given your social security number even if the “employer” claims that he needs it to fill out the appropriate tax forms for your services rendered online. Any online writing job should be verified or it may be a scam where the identity thief is the one who gets the bonus at the end of the assignment, not the writer.