Busting Scams - From HYIPs to Identity Theft Insurance

IF YOU PLAN TO IGNORE MY ADVICE AND INVEST IN HYIPs, THEN AT LEAST GET THIS EBOOK !!! It will keep you out of trouble.

If you've done any searching for money-making opportunities on the internet, you may have stumbled across something called an "HYIP."  Hopefully you haven't jumped in without doing some research first.  Start with looking up the term on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HYIP where you'll find an excellent article on the topic.

I've put a little money into a few of them just to test the waters and get a sense for the experience.  There is no end to our appetite for buying false hope.  Not suprisingly my first test resulted in a scam.  I was supposed to get a 6% return in just 1 day, or as the site misstated, a 106% "profit."  6% in one day means an annual rate of over 2000% if I drew the interest every day.  If I invested $1 and then I let it compound every day, I'd be a billionaire in a year!  Cool! I even get 6% per YEAR on a deposit account in the US.  If I could, and I lived to be 365, I could replicate the results of this HYIP.  Hmmm...

Of course that didn't happen.  Instead I got an email confirming my investment, another confirming my withdrawal request, and finally one confirming that they had delivered the funds back to my ecurrency account.  Worked great except that I never received those funds.  Maybe I was just stupid and picked the wrong one.  So I'm trying another one... 
Hmmm....I think I see how this works for the guys running these things

Most HYIP programs are a fascinating combination of two scams (pyramid + ponzi) with the addition of the feel of gambling. When a new HYIP is opened, and the fools rush in, there is sufficient inflow to actually pay many investors the promised return regardless of how the "managed investment" might be doing behind the scenes.  Some of these players know exactly what they're doing, and the rest are newbies and/or fools.  This leads to positive reviews on so-called "monitor sites," and more people invest.  This works great for as long as the membership base grows at an accelerating rate.  As soon as growth slows, it begins to fall apart.  And then the site disappears.

The entertaining thing about this (or the sad statement it makes about human nature) is that it appears that many of the repeat "investors" seem to know exactly what is going on.  They know the "game" and like to play it anyway.  It's kind of like running around filling a paper bag with wet money...as long as you don't try to pick up much, and you don't leave the money in the bag for too long, you're fine.

HYIPs are successful for the people who run them beause the play nicely into some basic human weaknesses.  You start with hope - hope for a free lunch.  You blame yourself, and try again.  You figure it out, and then the gambling instinct kicks in -- it gets exciting!  A game of chicken for money.

Some percentage of you are now excited about HYIPs and will be trying them soon I think.  I'm so sorry for you, best of luck...here is an HYIP that is supposedly paying out  I just put some money in it, let's give it a shot together (KIDDING, PLEASE DON'T).  Make sure you always check some blacklists like this one before rolling the dice.  I also recommend you join this group for a small fee to get a feel for the community.  They have a ton of good info on a variety of make-money topics.  True or not true, believe or don't believe -- but at least KNOW what this community is talking about if you going to venture into it.

If you think this all sounds like shady stuff, it is.  But it also sounds like the stock market when it's riding a hype wave, or the recent failure by many investors to see the risk in securitized mortgage securities.  Maybe these guys are no worse than the financial markets.   Anyone want to invest in a sub-prime mortgage security?  Got a Bear-Stearns account?