Get-rich-quick scheme

{{scam}}
{{Economics}}
{{Sources}}
The hook for '''get-rich-quick schemes''' is that almost everyone would like to be rich tomorrow without a lot of danger, risk or hard work.  The world is full of people telling you there are ways you can do this, especially if you buy their book or invest in their business. The vast majority of these schemes fail. If there were a reliable way to get rich quickly, everyone would be doing it. For some reason, its hard to market a get-poor-quick scheme.

==Some related concepts==
Get-rich-quick schemes are not necessarily [[scams]] as defined by RationalWiki, since sometimes the person pushing the scheme believes in it. However, they are generally scams in the sense that the risk is greater or the expected yield lower than what the people promoting the scheme say.

Some get-rich-quick schemes are just [[crime]]. However, if it were safe and easy to get rich by crime, there would be more criminals. ''[[Freakonomics]]'' argues that the dream of getting rich draws young people into [[drug]] dealing, where most of them earn about minimum wage and face a significant chance of being arrested or assaulted.

Some people certainly make a lot of money for not much work. However, when one looks closely, often they have credentials or connections which few other people have, and often they spent years toiling in obscurity. For every [[J.K. Rowling]] who sells one book and becomes rich there are thousands of writers who never make much money however many books they publish (and a dozen authors who start to make a living from writing after ten books and relentlessly attending the right parties and conferences). [[Jeffrey Epstein]] befriended wealthy Americans (and one member of the House of Windsor), embezzled money as a private "financial advisor" for one of them, then procured underage girls for some of the wealthy men, then threatened to reveal their activities if they crossed him. Most people who want to become money managers can't use this strategy.

==Examples==
===Risky business===
* The [[419 scam]] (aka. Nigerian scam) promises wealth if you just help someone transfer money or get out of prison
* [[Pyramid scheme]]s such as [[Kevin Martin]]'s Online Twin Mentors usually promise high returns to get investments coming in
* [[Multi-level marketing]] pushers promise that it's an excellent business model. It is if you are running the MLM scheme and are not worried about prison.
* There are many other scams which offer you a chance to participate in a criminal enterprise such as drug smuggling and take a share of the profit. Sometimes that criminal enterprise is fleecing you!

===Education===
* Many educational institutions, especially for-profit institutions, make big claims about what a good job you will get if you take an expensive course or certification. Education and training can lead to financial success, but make sure you are not enrolling in {{wpl|Trump University}}. Don't expect that the job will stay good forever either- other workers can take the same course you did and compete on wages or accept worse working conditions. One day the offshore oil fields may run out and send you back to your village, or the government may loosen regulations and devalue your license.

===Real estate===
* Housing prices in rich countries have been rising for decades, sometimes faster than the values of stocks or bonds. People who stretched to mortgage several homes to capture this growth were ruined when the US housing market crashed in 2008. People who buy homes, renovate them, and try to quickly flip them at a profit can also be disappointed at how much work it is or that people don't want to double their money after they knocked down a few walls, switched some light fixtures, and repainted.
* Before there was speculation in housing there was speculation in land, especially in the American west and wherever a railroad might be built or gold might be found. The best way to make money was to buy before anyone was sure whether the gold was pyrite and the railroad was really coming.
* {{wpl|Land banking}} in the UK offers shares in a plot of land which might go up in value if its redeveloped or if something is built nearby. This lets people with limited assets get into the real estate market, but if the coming rise in property values were a sure thing ordinary banks would be interested. Make sure to read the [[fine print]].

===Financial speculation===
* {{wpl|John Law's Company}} in France and the [[Banking crisis|South Sea Company]] in England both promised to solve the government's financial problems and make investors rich, then collapsed in 1720, giving [[economics]] the term bubble. The South Sea Company was founded to sell slaves to Spanish America, so its 'legitimate business' wasn't.
* Many people buy [[cryptocurrency]] because they hope its price will rise rapidly and they will either own the future of money, or be able to sell the crypto for traditional money. Once the crypto economy emerged, new get-rich schemes emerged to make money from it, such as taking advantage of the different exchange rates in different countries or on different servers. Cryptocurrency is often stolen by crooks, lost to accidents, or frozen by courts so the high returns from these schemes came with high risk.
* Some [[Goldbug]]s promise that you just have to buy gold and you will be rich when the statists and their fiat money collapse. [[Goldline]] had its own get-rich-quick scheme of buying gold at bullion prices and selling it to goldbugs as more expensive collectible coins.
* Some people decide they know how to get rich on the conventional stock and bond market using secret teachings such as [[Cyclical theory]] or by investing in meme stocks. It's going to infinity, so apes stay strong!
* [https://www.investright.org/avoid-fraud/types-of-investment-scams/prime-bank-scheme/ Prime bank schemes] claim to offer access to exclusive investment opportunities otherwise reserved for a few elites, often involving expanding the [[money supply]]. The way banks create money ''is'' hard to understand, but someone in a rented office is not seriously considering giving you access to some of that money if you just pay the right fees.
* Since the 2003 Iraq war, some investors put their hopes in [[Dinar revaluation]]. If I buy Iraqi dinars today, and the US government intervenes to raise their value tomorrow, I could clean up!
* Sometimes the person offering you a chance for {{wpl|insider trading}} really knows a secret, other times their stock tips are no better than the shoeshine boy's
* All sorts of people offer systems for winning at [[gambling]] or picking the winning [[lottery]] ticket. Actually making money from poker or slot machines requires long hours of tedious work and a substantial bankroll, or breaking the rules (such as having someone mark the cards for you). Casinos can also throw out gamblers who start to win big. Beating illegal games has the risk that the whole game is rigged and that the mobsters running the game may break your knees rather than pay out. People do sometimes find a flaw in the math of a lottery, or a biased roulette table, but do your homework and watch out for wishful thinking before you buy lots of lotto tickets or visit the casino! And even outsmarting the lotto can require 700-mile drives and sitting in a hotel room examining 360,000 tickets.<ref>[https://www.cbc.ca/radio/undertheinfluence/this-michigan-couple-spotted-a-lucrative-lottery-loophole-1.6809181 This Michigan couple spotted a lucrative lottery loophole], ''CBC Radio'', April 13, 2023</ref>

===Wishful thinking===
* The [[Prosperity gospel]] promises that if you are pious and give to the Church you will be rewarded
* The [[Law of attraction]] can also justify get-rich-quick schemes. If you ask annoying questions you are just manifesting negativity and driving away the money.
* [[Freemen on the land]] promise you can escape paying taxes, rent, utilities, or mortgages by [[Magical thinking|reciting the correct incantations]] or waving papers with the right words
* Some [[Anti-Semitic|anti-Semites]] assume that any [[Jew]] knows how to get rich, so all they have to do is find a Jew and make him share. 
* Many American startups pitch themselves to investors as the next Paypal, [[Facebook]], or [[Google]] which will make its early investors rich. They have a whiz-kid CEO who wears turtleneck sweaters so she must be the next [[Steve Jobs]] right?

===General comments===
Many get-rich-quick schemes claim to offer secret information that not everyone has access to. Pushers try to create fear of missing out and argue that its key to get in right away. While people do sometimes learn secrets and use them to grow rich, that precious information is more likely to come over a game of golf than by listening to a podcast alongside a million other people. Finance has the term ''dumb money'' for investors with the same information anyone with an Internet connection can get.

People selling get-rich-schemes often use bad arguments like the [[appeal to celebrity]]. By the time a Premier League star is endorsing something on the telly, its no longer an exclusive secret which only insiders know about.

Since the 19<sup>th</sup> century, hustle culture often exaggerates how well hard work will be rewarded. {{wpl|Horatio Alger}}'s boy heroes often progressed to earning more than the average adult wage after a few months or years of struggle. People often travel to hot job markets in search of wealth, whether gold fields in the nineteenth century or oil fields in the 20th century, only to find that living there is expensive and there are many vices to spend money on. Generally, the higher the yield, or the easier the scheme sounds, the more doubt you should have. [[Bernie Madoff]] disguised his Ponzi scheme by offering generous but not absurd returns.

==Birds of a feather flock together==
Get-rich-quick schemes sometimes bloom like algae in places which have suddenly been exposed to global markets and media, such as [[Albania]], or places where many people trust anyone of the same religion and ethnicity, such as [[Utah]]. Not all [[affinity fraud]] is a get-rich-quick scheme, but it's easier to get someone to join your get-rich-quick scheme if he thinks you are trustworthy.

==Just remember==

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Many people sign up for a get-rich-quick scheme and discover it was get-poor-quick.

==References==
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[[Category:Business]]
[[Category:Crime]]
[[Category:Deceit]]
[[Category:Financial fraud]]
[[Category:Scams]]
[[Category:Self help]]

Categories: Business, Crime, Deceit, Financial fraud, Scams, Self help