Trending Now
If you’re as cynical as I am, then you probably just assume that there are plenty of ways to make money if one has no qualms about how they go about it, right?
You might not realize how many ideas people have, though, or how many of them have even (sometimes surprisingly) worked in the past – but don’t worry, these 14 people are going to clear that up for you.
Take a look at some ways they say the unethical could make a bunch of cash real quick.
14. You’re missing something there.
Step 1. Spend a ton of time on reddit looking for get rich schemes
Step 2. ?
Step 3. Profit
13. It’s a big mystery.
Marry a rich person then have them disappear while skiing in vermont and you were home this entire time
12. A terrible solution.
Short term cash/payday loans.
There is a commercial in my area for a short term loan place where they specifically say that a quick cash loan is the solution if all of your credit cards are maxed out.
Preying on poor people with no financial skills.
11. That’s quite a deal.
Mint a NFT and list it for $200. Buy it from yourself then repost it for $2000. Buy it from yourself and repost it for $10k.
Repost it for $25k+ and wait for someone else to buy it, thinking they are getting a deal on something with skyrocketing value. Repeat.
10. Have a lot of money to begin with.
John, A friend of the family’s dad was a bank manager. When John was 18 his dad approved a massive loan for John even though he had no collateral, no job, no prospects etc.
He used that loan to make a down-payment on a dozen units in a new apartment building that they had just broken ground on.
A year later the cost of those units had more than tripled. John sold half, paid back the loan and used that money to float the mortgage for the remaining 6 for another year until they were done being built.
Then he found renters for 5 and moved in to the 6th. The renters paid off the mortgages and provided him a substantial source of income for the rest of his life.
As I understand it, that sort of deal can’t really happen so much anymore since local bank managers don’t really have the same authority these days. Loans get approved generally by number crunchers outside of the local branch.
But it does go to show you how just having a lot of money makes EVERYTHING different for you in terms of options for how to make money. All he did was secure a loan that he in no way should have qualified for and possessing that money even just for a year set him up forever.
9. It would always be full.
Run an Alpha Male Camp. Charge $10k for the week long stay.
It sounds like a camp where idiots pay you 10k a week for you to stroke their egos.
Who’s a big Alpha? That’s right, you’s a big alpha.
8. At least in America.
Buy patent rights to life saving medication and hike the price up sky high.
7. If you don’t mind being a scumbag.
There’s a lot of grandiose plans on here. But I’ve got one that you can start with just a few thousand dollars. Go to your states Treasury website. There you can see properties that are overdue on property tax. In most states, if you pay that overdue property tax, the owner of the property typically has a time limit to pay you back your money, or forfeit the property.
What this means is, worst case, you get your money back + interest. But more than likely, if you’re able to target someone going through bankruptcy, they’ll end up having to forfeit their property to you. Then you can sell it once a new deed or title is issued by the state. Typically for significantly more than the back taxes you paid for it.
There are some issues. If it’s someone’s primary residence, you’ll pretty much have to hire a lawyer to fight them on squatters rights. If it’s a car, good luck ever finding it. They’ll just drive away and be in trouble next time they get pulled over.
Secondary properties are ideal. But those don’t come along super often. As people who can afford multiple properties usually know enough to pay their taxes.
Anyways, you can start with cars for a few hundred dollars. Houses and other properties cost a few thousand.
If you don’t mind being a scumbag kicking people out of their homes when they’re at one of the lowest points in their life, it can be quite lucrative.
6. The scummiest.
Tv evangelist.
5. A slimy salesman.
On a somewhat similar note: taking advantage of financial illiteracy, which is staggeringly widespread. I occasionally saw “we’ll buy out your mortgage!” signs and looked up how it works:
Turns out that many to most people have no fucking clue what “equity” is. So you get somebody in a 500k home who owes 250k over the remaining 20 years of their mortgage, but they’ve fallen on hard times and are behind on payments by 6mo and maintenance by 20k (needs roof repair, lets say). So they are facing foreclosure/eviction/bankruptcy.
If the bank seized it, they’ll auction it for 450k, take 250k to cover the remaining mortgage, and probably hand over ~150-180k to the owner which is their equity minus fees/etc. Obviously they now need to find a new home, but in terms of raw cash-in-hand its a substantial amount.
So instead, some asshole tries to come in as a slimy salesman to “help them avoid bankruptcy” by buying out the mortgage (and the home). They agree to pay 250k to pay off the mortgage and they’re so generous that they’ll cover back taxes and all fees out of pocket, take care of the repairs themselves, and even give the residents 5k to cover a few months in a shiny new apartment! The residents get to avoid bankruptcy/foreclosure/eviction and all that stress, this is a great idea (well, thats what the slimy asshole claims)!
…But in the mess of paperwork and legal terms, the elderly/sick/financially illiterate owner looses track of the fact that they are selling a $500k asset for <$300k, walking away from $200k in equity that they would get on the open market. And the slimy salesman is just going to sell it and pocket that equity for himself.
4. So cringe.
A friend once told me the story of a millionaire he met. The man said he got rich quick by offering poor, very elderly people a few thousand dollars up front to take out large life insurance policies.
He paid the premiums and he was the beneficiary.
3. A legit service, but…
As time marches along there is a steady stream of injury-lawsuit plaintiffs who emerge and who essentially have slam-dunk cases against their defendants (i.e. negligently-stacked products at a store falls on someone and breaks their hip, all caught on camera, etc.)
Problem is – the time between the injury and the actual payout might be many months. Bills still gotta get paid, mouths gotta eat, all that good stuff. Since they may not be working, banks are hesitant to give them bridge loans based on expected payouts – “expected” being different from a “sure thing”.
At any rate – if I understand correctly, lawyers themselves aren’t allowed to loan these people money directly, but there is a whole industry of folks who are good friends / related to injury lawyers who provide short-term loans at predatory interest rates to these people.
As in – “My lawyer friend tells me you’ve got a $800K+ payout coming down the pipe in the next year but you’re broke AF right now. I’ll loan you $50K for up to 12 months to keep the lights on and food on the table, and you pay me $75K after the payout. ”
Also handily, since the same lawyer who is handling receipt of the payout is also drafting the short-term loan contract, the friend / relative always gets their money before the plaintiff.
They argue that they provide a legit service, but it’s pretty scummy IMO.
2. Not exactly rich, but…
Being a paid shill on Wikipedia. I get paid between $200-$500 to create articles about people and organizations who want more publicity. Some people pay more than $1,000 to get a Wikipedia article
Edit: I do this with a website called Upwork. It helps to have knowledge of Wikipedia’s policies so your paid activities look less suspicious
1. Right out in the open.
Run a pay day loan store. F**king legal loansharking.
Allowed because if they didn’t allow it you’d have desperate people getting their knees broken in back alleys by old fashioned illegal-type loansharks
Some of these are meant to be funny, but honestly, people have proved they’ll fall for anything.
What else belongs on this list? We want to hear it in the comments!
