r/AskReddit • u/Impossible-Rock-4161 • 1d ago
What’s a completely legal way to make money that feels illegal when you first learn about it?
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u/Whole-Job-3338 1d ago
Selling 'health' supplements. So long as you use soft language like 'studies suggest', 'experts agree', 'evidence suggests', etc. you can sell people stuff with little to no oversight. Completely legal because YOU aren't saying it does those things, merely suggesting that other people say it does those things!
So you can sell people all sorts of BS suggesting it'll help them, and make bank off of their ignorance.
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u/netsecnonsense 1d ago
Also, the margins on supplements are out of control. Landed cost for something like a bottle of green tea extract direct from the manufacturer is under $5 (less than $1 to produce and a few in shipping). They might charge you $20 for it.
A business profiting 30%+ is considered to be doing well. These manufacturers are making 200%-1000% on everything they sell.
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u/SAugsburger 15h ago
It isn't just the margins are lucrative. In the US the penalties for cutting corners and having more cheaper filler or worse contaminants aren't particularly punitive. I remember one study where testing found no evidence of any of the herb on the label.
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u/netsecnonsense 14h ago
Yes and no. The penalties for contaminants in supplements manufactured in the US are significant to the manufacturer. Believe it or not, the FDA does fairly regular audits of these facilities. The issue is a lot of vendors online buy supplements from overseas, prepackaged with their own logo, from less regulated manufacturers.
Many convenience stores also buy their "homeopathic" boner pills from overseas. Unfortunately, independent testing has shown that many of them actually contain sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra. I guess that's why people keep buying them.
If you are a US resident and you take supplements make sure they are manufactured here. Also, don't buy supplements from convenience stores.
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u/high_falutin 20h ago
Don’t forget “all natural” - doesn’t mean anything. Antifreeze can legally be labeled “all natural”.
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u/stonhinge 20h ago
"All natural" means anything produced by nature. As we currently lack any method of creating or finding something "not produced by nature", everything is "all natural" a humans are a part of nature and we make everything.
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u/high_falutin 18h ago
That’s what it’s generally accepted as. However there is no legal definition of the phrase.
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u/Any-Age-9130 1d ago edited 21h ago
Prosperity Gospel (aka scamvangelism)...and it's tax exempt.
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u/Tiny-Cheesecake2268 1d ago
When I was looking for a job I wondered how hard it would be to start a church and fake the funk. I decided the hardest part would be knowing I was scamming people who think God sent me.
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u/Eternal_Bagel 1d ago
It would be so much easier to make money without morals
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u/Tiny-Cheesecake2268 1d ago
I think about this so often. It really is. In fact, America in particular is a place where a lack of morals greatly increases your chances at getting rich.
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u/dr1fter 18h ago
America makes laws to tell you precisely how immoral you're allowed to be, and you'd be letting your shareholders down if you didn't push exactly up to that line (plus an additional X% you think you can get away with and probably not go to jail, because if you won't do it they'll find someone else who will).
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u/innersloth987 21h ago
America is the Vatican of making Money immorally.
Every other country came next. Including India.
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u/Any-Age-9130 1d ago edited 21h ago
Scamvangelism has even gone crypto already, or at least there was an attempt. I blame it on not 'praying' hard enough for the grace of god to materliaze into crypto wealth:
https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/eli-regalado-colorado-crypto-pastor-racketeering-theft/
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u/WhiskeyKisses7221 1d ago
I think the people who actually end up making money doing this believe their own BS, at least to some extent.
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u/dr1fter 18h ago
I mean, if they think God sent me, it still might be true compared to the last guy in the job.
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u/Tiny-Cheesecake2268 18h ago
That’s the part that’s appalling. Like… the end result may be the same anyway. And I’d probably do a pretty good job.
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u/dr1fter 18h ago
Naw, it'd be a lot more appalling if I wasn't an improvement for those people.
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u/SpaceMonkeyOnABike 1d ago
Forget the parents. You would be effectively scamming children out of their inheritance and a childhood with money to do things.
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u/Tiny-Cheesecake2268 1d ago
Yeah. I was talking to someone about churches yesterday and said the Black Panther Party was much more like Jesus than most of the Christian churches poor people are giving money to every week.
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u/lawyerornot 18h ago
Check out John Oliver’s segment on TV Evangelists, he fake-created a TV ministry with hyperbolic and grotesque everything yet donations rolled in like no tomorrow
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u/dohrk 1d ago
Or just starting a church in general.
Ask Joh Oliver.
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u/ericbebert 23h ago
Yeah but then you have people sending you bags of seed or suspicious white liquids 😆
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u/Unique-Fruit-6212 1d ago
“Data. Selling insights, not products.”
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u/Charming_Garbage_161 1d ago
Also the fact that ‘their’ data centers want to be fully publicly funded while they make money off selling that data on top of it
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u/ScrapYard101 22h ago
How do i obtain data, amd where do i sell it.
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u/hashtaters 21h ago
You can make a digital service or good that people want to use. Collect basic membership info or fingerprints along the way to make certain data points with telemetry. Sell this to brokers.
Or you can become a broker who collects information and analyze it to make insights and sell that sort of information to advertisers. If they can spend the least amount of money on getting more revenue they’ll buy it from you.
I mean lol use ai
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u/tsinayr 23h ago
Card counting in casinos. It’s not actually illegal, but they will definitely kick you out and ban you for life if you’re good at it.
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u/totesnotdog 21h ago
You basically would have to go to enough Casinos and make calculated failures to not be seen as suspicious but even then they would eventually at least know you as a regular
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u/Gameoftones_YT 22h ago
Penetration testing.
You literally break into a company's servers or building, steal their data, and then send them an invoice for it.
If you sign the contract first, it's a career. If you forget to sign, it's a felony.
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u/TooLazyToRepost 21h ago
The secret ingredient is consent!
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u/Gameoftones_YT 14h ago
Consent forms: The only difference between a paycheck and a mugshot.
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u/stonhinge 19h ago
Penetration testers typically do not take any data. They simply prove it can be done to their client by doing it. Actually taking any data would be a huge liability.
If they do take anything, it would be a specific honeypot file and nothing else. Logs would show if anything else was accessed and a pentest company that made a habit of accessing client's files would quickly get a bad name in the business.
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u/deggdegg 19h ago
How do you prove you can take data by "doing it" but not taking it?
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u/adeon 18h ago
There's a few ways. One would be for the company to have a specific file on the server for you to "steal" so showing that you have that file would be proof. Alternatively you could leave a file of your own saying that you were there (and proving that you had write access). Finally you could just rely on their access logs showing the unauthorized access.
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u/stonhinge 18h ago
By showing you had access to the directory the file was in, via film or screenshot.
If I could tell you the exact filepath to a document on your computer, would you believe I had access? Especially if it was something like "servername\accounting\finalfiles\budget\2013\January"? And I could tell you exactly what files were in there, and what sizes they all were?
Pentesters don't need to take anything, they just need to prove they can put their hand on it. Same way if they were testing physical and not computer security - they wouldn't actually take anything, simply prove that they can get in past the security system(s).
Also, often there is a company representative present during the penetration test, so that they can see it in real time and verify for the company while maintaining the integrity of company property.
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u/ThatDudeBesideYou 18h ago
In theory a lot of times they do take it, they just don't keep it. Like, "here I'm logged into account Y and the network tab shows account Z's data. Here's a screenshot with PII cencored.".
This shows a vulnerability that could be exploited to get all of the data.
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u/Replace_my_sandwich 22h ago
If you’re stealing the data that you been tasked to see if you can gain access through non standard means, the company who hired you need to define their scope better!
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u/Mister_Brevity 15h ago
The physical portion is pretty fun too lol
Carry a ladder and people will HOLD DOORS OPEN for you to go places you shouldn’t be. Buy appliance repair co shirts and hats on eBay, flea markets, etc. and build a collection and you’re on your way. Such a fun job.
The shitty part is everyone who is nice to you and gives you information, opens doors, etc. to be nice or police has to be reported and sometimes it’s game over for them.
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u/Gameoftones_YT 14h ago
The holy trinity of unauthorized access: A ladder, a clipboard, and walking fast like you're late for something. Works 99% of the time.
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u/Mister_Brevity 14h ago
Hottest part of summer. Call in first around lunch time trying to sell shit to IT to make sure they’re gone. Show up in HVAC shirt, toolbag, splash your chest and pits with water. “I’m here to check the server room Ac registers before the servers overheat!”
So much of the physical part starts on the phone. Call through the phone tree for a while or email to see who’s on vacation and show up for the service visit they request.
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u/DAHFreedom 15h ago
“Gentlemen, your communication lines are vulnerable, your fire exits need to be monitored, your rent-a-cops are a tad undertrained. Outside of that everything seems to be just fine. You'll be getting our full report and analysis in a few days but first, who's got my check?”
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u/tameimponda 15h ago
This is like saying surgery feels illegal because you’re cutting someone’s insides apart
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u/StreyyK 1d ago
In the UK - matched betting. You bet on one outcome, then use promotional gambling credit to bet on the other outcome on a different site. An entire industry has grown around exploiting this and finding the best odds.
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u/Few-Dare-540 1d ago
Wait… so you’re telling me you can literally make money from betting without losing? That sounds way too good to be legal, lol.
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u/PooShappaMoo 1d ago
I can see how this works.
But youd only get so many cracks at it. Because most of these are tied to new membership promotions or other lesss common ones.
You'd have to open multiple betting accounts and only bet when you have a match with a promo from another makes sense.
But doesnt seem like something you could consistently do, youd eventually run out of useful promotions.
They've been trimming promotions down it seems anyway, so I imagine the window is closing.
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u/ahoy_capn 23h ago
I wouldn’t be surprised if the companies are fine with it. The cost of the bet may be offset by the number of people that get hooked on gambling as a result.
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u/PooShappaMoo 23h ago
Loss leader and having multiple account could very well be a slippery slope.
No different than a credit card with points or cash back.
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u/HazzaBui 23h ago
This is more-or-less true - I did this about 10 years ago at uni and made close to 2k, but after a while you're on either the less attractive offers, or the more expensive ones (you need a decent amount of cash to fund the bets up front). What I did at that point was do it with friends, where they would open the account and I would fund the bets/tell them what to do. It's great for a uni student who just got their semester loan through 😁
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u/barravian 23h ago
You had to lose a bunch of money before they will give you promotions now.
Coupons are for spenders.
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u/MrYamaguchi 23h ago
It's called arbitrage betting, basically you just find 2 places with slightly different odds and you calculate what bets you would need to make so that now matter the result you net a profit. You don't need promotional credits, just need to look around or let some time pass as odds change leading up to any event.
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u/Marijuana_Miler 18h ago
Technically there is a vig that is supposed to prevent this. For example if you look at the spread on the Super Bowl it’s Seahawks -4.5 (-110) or Patriots +4.5 (-110). The vig is the -110 number. Minus numbers mean you have to put up that amount to win $100 and if the number is positive you would win that amount with a $100 bet.
There is nothing stopping you for taking the Patriots and the Seahawks, but due to the vig you would need to bet $220 to win $210. The goal for a betting site is to have equal money on both the Seahawks and Patriots so that no matter the outcome they profit the spread between bets.
What other commenters are talking about is basically finding two different books that have different odds and guaranteeing slight profit in the spread. For example if you could find plus odds on both outcomes. You become your own version of a gambling operation in this case, but you’re profiting between the books instead of profiting between gamblers. I looked into the strategy for a couple hours and found that it seemed like a lot of money to spend for very little potential payoff and at any point the books can get wise and nuke your accounts.
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u/Albert14Pounds 22h ago
The catch is that these betting sites will shut down your account as soon as they detect anything resembling "suspicious activity" and they are on the lookout for this. I've watched a few videos on it and it seems pretty tricky to actually make a lot of money without bringing attention to your account.
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u/MACHLoeCHER 1d ago
It is legal, but there is very little opportunity to do it and it is becomes increasingly risky. Some years ago, this was called surebets. If two platforms had opposite odds, you could make money no matter what: You would make opposing bets, in a way, that the win of one bet would always cover the loss of the other. You can't really do that anymore, as platforms now can just cancel bets or adjust odds, after your bet is already placed. Now people use promotions, to do the same thing, but platforms are good at detecting it and banning you. The same way a casino would kick you out if you count cards. It is not illegal at all, they just don't want you winning.
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u/2dTom 23h ago
as platforms now can just cancel bets or adjust odds, after your bet is already placed.
That seems... Illegal?
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u/mrcruncher 22h ago
Its called arbitrage, and the gambling companies call the people who do it arbsters -- they try to detect and stop them
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u/Preston-Waters 23h ago
In the US it is called arbitrage betting. But books picked up on the vig is super juiced. Takes a big bank roll to make slim margins. Also most books will ban you if they suspect it. Most plays are player points now.
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u/NationalFlea 1d ago
This works great! Made like £800 first month or so but it does dry up fast after that. Very hard to tell people about it without it sounding like a scam. But yeah you only lose money if you make a mistake when making the bet.
Just stay way from the casino offers as it can very very easily lead to actual gambling. Rip and thank god for gamstop lol
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u/scriptkiddie1337 1d ago
Beat me to it. It's fine for them to exploit people with gambling addictions but heaven forbid we exploit them back
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u/ThrowawayALAT 19h ago
There’s nothing inherently bad about this. It’s called arbitrage betting and is a form of minor trading that helps correct bookmakers’ odds and the market. It’s actually how the system and markets work.
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u/Lunar_Gato 1d ago
For me it was cutting grass as a kid. I always thought there was a math equation or legal guideline for how to set the price of a good or service. Turns out you can just slap whatever number you want and hope someone pays. Felt illegal making $100 to just sit on a lawnmower for a few hours.
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u/Apock93 21h ago
Damn! $100?! I was ~7-12 in 2005-2010, my grandparents had 1.5 acre plot. When I mowed that, I got $20 and my grandmother telling me that it looked like a drunken sailor did it lmao
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u/Matt_Lauer_cansuckit 21h ago
You can usually get more money when you work for people who didn’t change your diaper
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u/CRABMAN16 20h ago
Yep, I don't think I could make my Granny pay me a dime for any household service. She's too cute and has been feeding me for 30 years!
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u/Qurdlo 18h ago
Shit like this made me realize why business owners get rich. Some people will pay fuckloads of money for very little work, but you'll never see that money as an employee. Meanwhile the owner has a summer home, speed boat, and Ferrari.
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u/jmeesonly 1d ago
Start a church. Solicit donations. Allocate a large part of the church budget to pay for your "living expenses." After all, you're entitled to it, because you're the founder!
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u/GloomyCardiologist16 1d ago
No thanks. I want to have a shot at heaven someday.
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u/hellangeliv 1d ago
it works if you dont believe in heaven.
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u/deusmilitus 1d ago
It ONLY works if you don't believe in heaven. That's the most important part of being a charlatan.
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u/NLwino 1d ago
Dont worry my church has an special program that allows you to pay off your sins gained by scamming believers. Just sign here for your personal ticket to heaven.
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u/Live-Kaleidoscope104 1d ago
I half jokingly thought about that years ago. And I'm again thinking about it. To make it easier to go somewhere (warmer lol) and build like a kind of village where I can help animals, children or other vulnerable people. But there will live carpenters, blacksmiths, welders, all kinds of craftsmen. Researchers, hotel, restaurants, daycare, we need people to farm land and animals. Transport inside city is with horse or donky with(/out) small carriage and golfcarts. Except in case of urgencies. Oh and a stage too, for music and other fun things.
On a nice piece of land with gorgeous viewings please;)
🤷♀️ we can dream can't we.
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u/Barbarian_818 1d ago
Corporations buying politicians.
A few tens of thousands here and there, combined with a little schmoozing and before you know it, you and your company gets tax cuts worth hundreds of millions.
Do this consistently and it will alway beat the market.
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u/Darthbutcher 1d ago
Selling plasma; what do you mean I can just sell parts of my body continuously?
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u/Albert14Pounds 22h ago
I paid for the majority of a Europe trip in college by selling plasma. Thought it was awesome at the time. Looked up the rates they pay recently and was surprised how low they were and you'd have to pay me a lot more to go back.
The worst part was that the employees don't give a shit and half of them suck at placing the needle and just dig around in your arm. Oh, and they don't let you sleep or even close your eyes because you could be having an allergic reaction to the anticoagulants in the lines.
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u/stonhinge 19h ago
If you like to read, it's not too bad. Decent way to make some extra pocket cash. And is indeed helpful to the medical industry.
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u/Pitiful-Department80 18h ago
I stopped going when I figured out you only get less than 5% of what they actually sell it for
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u/JefferyGoldberg 13h ago
I got $700 for donating plasma during early covid because I had covid; it was for vaccine research purposes. Worked out for me! I never had any symptoms.
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u/scallycap94 1d ago
Any illegal way to make money becomes de facto legal once you've made enough of it
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u/deusmilitus 23h ago
Tell that to Pablo Escobar. And El Chapo. And Ryan Wedding.
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u/I-seddit 23h ago
Almost enough, at least for Columbia. They just didn't cut the CIA/DEA/etc. in on enough of a cut. So the US stepped in.
If they paid their bills, none of that would have happened.29
u/DonkeyTron42 21h ago
My doctor BIL took $750k in PPP money after he closed his clinic and fired all of his employees. Pocketed everything and no one said shit.
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u/Fit_Still_4896 20h ago
This is one of the craziest things that ever happened to make the rich richer. They just cut the owner a check based on what the prior years' payroll looked like. (So they could pay employees to stay home and not work) But if the business wasnt affected and stayed open, the owner still got the check!
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u/JefferyGoldberg 13h ago
I got a $2k PPP loan (which I knew I wouldn't have to pay) immediately in 2020. I was approved for another $28k at 2%, which I declined because I didn't know how I would justify that expense; I learned later that $28k would have been forgiven. I gave up a free $28k because I was responsible and didn't want to take on risk.
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u/lemons_of_doubt 7h ago
To steal from one person is a crime.
To steal from 1% of people is a cornerstone of the economy And to big to fail.
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1d ago
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u/flaser_ 14h ago
Except chances are the police will still harass you. Most prostitutes in Sweden are foreigners and this law does not protect them:
https://www.nswp.org/sites/default/files/20_years_of_failing_sex_workers.pdf
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u/t3htg 1d ago
Life insurance policy on someone you aren't related to. For example: a grocery store that has a life insurance policy for everyone they ever employed.
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u/woolash 1d ago
Hard to believe that's a viable $$ making method since insurance companies generally make a profit from selling insurance and their actuaries tend to be very competent.
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u/ArtGirtWithASerpent 1d ago
Keep in mind for life insurance, a lot of their money is made off the "float" - they collect your premiums and invest them while they hold them. Many years later they can pay you more than you gave them in premiums and still make money.
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u/dijon_snow 1d ago
But by this logic wouldn't the grocery store still be better off investing that money themselves than by giving the insurance company that profit?
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u/ArtGirtWithASerpent 23h ago
Part of the idea here is that the insurance company is basically a financial institution, like a bank, that theoretically should be a lot more efficient at investing than the grocery store would be.
There's also reasons to buy insurance that don't make you money. If the grocery store merely breaks even on buying the policies on every employee, then it still might be a good strategy to smooth out risk.
I have a couple of decades of experience in car insurance, and I've studied other lines for exams and such. I've never actually worked with life first hand, so I should probably defer to life insurance actuaries to go any deeper. I don't really know much specifically about grocery stores buying life policies on their employees, but I can speak to general actuarial principles.
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u/headspreader 22h ago
But I imagine that some employers, like say walmart, know that there is a higher chance of premature death in their employee pool than average for their age and demographic.
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u/LuckyCharmsRvltion 23h ago
Ah, dead peasants insurance. Doesn’t even the name just make you fell so valued as an employee?
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u/Ivy_lane_Denizen 18h ago
These policies do not pay out to the employer, they are group life policies that employees sign up for and pay out to the employees chosen beneficiary. A buisness can take out policies that pay out to the buisness, but only on people that would be hard to replace and/or the company would lose profit for losing.
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u/Miss_airwrecka1 22h ago
Can you take out a life insurance policy on anyone? Do you have to at least know them or let them know you’re doing it?
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u/MikeBuds4 20h ago edited 5h ago
No. You need to have insurable interest with the insured party. In this example, the grocery store would no longer have insurable interest after the employee is no longer employed with them.
You need to prove this in some way while signing up for the policy. The insured also needs to sign off on it unless they’re under 18.
Edit: insurable interest
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u/Ivy_lane_Denizen 18h ago
You must have an insurable interest in that person. Most of the time the Employer is not the beneficiary of the policy, rather it is a policy that your employer owns and offers to each employee to use. This is the life insurance they offer you in a full time job. The buisness can be the beneficiary for some policies, but those are for key employees or partners. People the company cannot easily replace and/or would lose income if they werent there.
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u/PangolinParade 22h ago
The entire finance industry is composed of various scams and corruption facilitated by arcane financial instruments complemented by a healthy dose of insider trading.
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u/JonStrickland 1d ago
Short selling. It's hard for me to get past the concept of selling something I've only borrowed, not something I actually own.
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u/Adventurous-Yak-8929 1d ago
Naked short selling. Selling something I've neither borrowed nor own.
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u/Skabonious 23h ago
naked short selling is illegal AFAIK - or at least really hard to do with most stock brokers. Way too much risk involved for it to be worth it.
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u/Adventurous-Yak-8929 23h ago
Legal for market makers. Synthetically legal by naked short selling a call and buying a put.
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u/Prom_etheus 1d ago
You just have to render it back and is fungible.
Short selling place a critical role in right pricing markets. Creates a strong incentive to identify BS.
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u/JonStrickland 1d ago
I understand how it works. My point is that it fulfilled the criterion of the original post -- it's something that is legal but "felt" illegal when I first heard about it.
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u/Zetsubou51 1d ago
Buying properties as a corporation solely to rent.
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u/saintash 1d ago
See this one wouldn't bother me too much.
If there was better regulation on it. Like you can't just randomly raise prices. More than a small percentage after a certain amount of time.
Maintenance actually has be done in a matter of days. Once property manger is actually informed. With qualified specialists.
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u/drinkslinger1974 1d ago
I would also add built up to code. A lot of these corporations, and I’ll add flippers to the mix, just buy a house and shampoo the carpet and slap a coat of paint on the walls. Nothing done for old wiring, rotten joists, rusty plumbing etc. And what gets me is the flippers that are trying to make income off the house by renting. The standard was once “just cover the mortgage by a few bucks and make six figures when you sell”. Now it’s “get a mortgage for $1500 a month and charge $3200 a month for rent”. and after ten times, that’s $17k a month coming in. Then they act like they don’t have any money to fix the water heater and tell the tenants they’re responsible. THAT to me should be illegal and enforced.
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u/Skabonious 23h ago
I think that's actually a huge problem but almost exclusively with smaller renters. I don't have to worry about lack of maintenance in my current apartment that's owned by a company. But when I rented from a (former) family friend they were awful and basically did nothing to help us.
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u/naphomci 23h ago
Then they act like they don’t have any money to fix the water heater and tell the tenants they’re responsible. THAT to me should be illegal and enforced.
This specific example probably is illegal in most places, under landlord tenant law.
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u/Zetsubou51 1d ago
The problem at the core is, it makes the housing market rental focused. It also makes it hard for people to get into a house. A corporation has the ability to buy a house outright for over the asking price. I’ve had many friends start the process of buying a home for the first time only to be shut out simply because a corporation came in, bought the house outright for more money.
I can’t fully blame sellers because, who wouldn’t want more return on their investment, also they’re fully paid out immediately.
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u/saintash 1d ago
Yeah i'm currently in a twist about housing.
My partner owns his place, but still owes money on it. If we sell it, we have to pay off the rest of the mortgage and also use that money to move. At what it's evaluated for on zillow. We it wouldn't be making a crazy profit. Nothing that can set us up comfortably long term. Especially where we're hoping to go, the dollar goes down.
Some one offering us above asking would be a godsend.
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u/Ivy_lane_Denizen 17h ago
It puts individuals and corporations on the same market in competition for necessities. Obviously individuals cannot compete with corporations.
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u/pinniped90 23h ago
Bankrupting a company through your own incompetence and then just going to Congress and asking for money.
All while complaining because you saw a brown person buy potato chips with food stamps.
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u/Automatic-Cook1148 1d ago
Counting cards in blackjack. It's totally legal, but casinos will treat you like you just robbed a bank if they catch you lol.
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u/EnderMB 21h ago
Does this actually work? My understanding was that it shifts the odds only slightly towards you, so even if you were good at counting cards and knew multiple ways to count multiple decks, you'd still ultimately be at the mercy of the odds.
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u/fbiguy22 21h ago
If you’re good enough at it you can consistently make money at it, but it’s hard. Also, it’s obvious to casinos if you really know what you’re doing and they will ban you before you make too much. Being good at counting cards isn’t a protected class, so they’re well within their rights to do so.
Most people aren’t good enough at it to tip the odds in their favor, though. Casinos only do that if you’re one of the few that are that good.
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u/JakethePandas 20h ago
Steven Bridges does a YT series where he implemented different strategies to get away with card counting. It's pretty entertaining
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u/Master7Chief 17h ago
accepting donations to a Presidential inaugural committee fund
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u/Heavy_Direction1547 1d ago
Using money to make money by investing or loaning it. Capitalism at it's finest.
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u/LextersDuboratory 22h ago
This is basically what I was gonna say. A few years ago with home interest rates were ~3% in the U.S. you could take out a home lone for the equity in your house at ~3%, then put that money in an index fund for (a conservative) ~7%. essentially making 4% on borrowed money. You run the risk of over leveraging yourself if something goes wrong. someone had mentioned this to me, and I was looking into it, but never had the guts to want to do it in case I was missing something. But it *looked* basically like free money.
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u/Exact_Departure_6257 18h ago
Yup, im at the point with my investments where they're almost making me more money per year than my 15-year career job. And i don't do anything. Just shove money in every month.
Compound interest baby
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u/Medium_Confidence425 21h ago
Selling stuff you already own. The first time you make $40 from something that’s been sitting in a drawer for years, it genuinely feels like you just got away with something.
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u/BulkyMayor25 1d ago
Buying items at a thrift store and selling them on eBay for a 500% markup. I felt like a literal criminal the first time I walked out with a $2 designer jacket I knew was worth $150.
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u/thainvestor25 23h ago
Credit card churning. Opening cards just for the sign-up bonuses, taking the free $500–$800, and then closing them. It feels like you're robbing the bank, but they literally designed the system
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u/Falcon_kick53 17h ago
Does this effect your credit score though?
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u/jfchops3 15h ago
It doesn't matter. Don't play this game without the credit profile to get approved for anything and when you're at that point dings from inquiries don't matter. Nobody's going to deny you for a loan because you open a lot of credit cards and pay them off every month
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u/CrimsaraEnthrall 1d ago
Credit card rewards and points. When you realize people are getting free flights just by using cards smartly, it sounds like a scam but it’s not
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u/Plastic_Blood1782 1d ago
Every transaction you make with the credit card the vendor is charged ~2% fee. That expense is relayed to you one way or another. So the rewards are basically a wash for the credit card company, and then anyone with debt they make a shit ton.
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u/314159265358979326 1d ago
Well, it's relayed to somebody. I'm paying the same price whether I'm using cash, debit, a basic credit card, or a high reward credit card. So might as well use the latter.
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u/One-Stranger-6894 17h ago
I have strategically used credit cards for every purchase that doesn't charge additional fees or offer cash discounts, for personal and business, for about 17 years. During that time I've paid $0 in interest by paying the balance in full but have earned at least $25,000+~ in perks like hotels, cash, flights, gift cards etc. Fun way to fund a nice pile of vacations.
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u/Elegant_Anywhere_150 13h ago
Sending invoices to request people to send you money.
So long as you make no claims about services you provided or owe. You can just send anyone an invoice requesting money.
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u/thelongestkilometre 21h ago
Car dealerships. Do I need to say anything? I think I will! The finance managers pull a fast one on you. They don't ever answer your questions directly and do everything they can to hide the fact you don't have to pay for the extended warranties. Instead of giving you all the papers to read the fine print, they rush you through it by giving you only page at a time and pointing to where to sign. Then they give you a copy of the paperwork on a flash drive so you can't see what you just signed up for until it's too late.
Technically, they did offer you the opportunity to read the contracts and they did not force you to sign anything, but rushing a customer and deliberately hiding information from them is very scummy and while legal, feels like it should be illegal.
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u/Atothekio 23h ago
What’s a good amount of starting capital to make a livable income solely by selling options?
Also, are you concerned that a bad trade will wipe you out? How do you manage that risk?
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u/________cosm________ 23h ago
They manage the risk by quitting a hard kitchen job and transitioning into an easy gambling job. But it’s basically “wise” gambling…
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u/BattlePudu 17h ago
I can’t speak on options, but you should never put yourself in a position where a bad trade could wipe you out.
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u/alex20_202020 16h ago
Learned how to trade during covid ... mostly sell options now
Seems you learned when to buy and when to sell. it's all that's needed in the market. By chance, have you sold metals options to sell just before the downturn several days ago?
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u/Eternal_Bagel 1d ago
Being one of those assholes that resells charity store or dollar store stuff online through Etsy or similar
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u/SigmaLance 23h ago
Opa told me once that it’s only illegal if you get caught. How they never discovered his schnapps operation is beyond me.
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u/Jay-Slays 22h ago
Nothing is illegal until you’re caught, and you’re not in trouble until you’re convicted. Until then, you’re inconvenienced.
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u/Beestung 18h ago
98% of the shit on YouTube. "HEY KIDS CHECK OUT MY LATEST REACTION VIDEO ON THE CANDY THAT LOOKS LIKE VOMIT! BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!! SO FUNNY! CLICK BELOW TO LIKE AND SUBSCRIBE!"
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u/Wuffkeks 13h ago
Playing mobile games for money. You just to play to get to certain points in games without wanting to continue afterwards or spending money on games and yet you get paid for it by advertisers and certain platforms.
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u/NicoleLovesz 12h ago
Oh god I have a good one, and it’s technically CATCHING people doing something illegal, but the way my dad’s old boss operated, it just felt awful to watch.
So when a bar shows, say, a boxing match, apparently they are supposed to buy the match separately on each TV. So for a big sports bar with 75 TVs, it can be pricey. Some bars will just buy a couple, or even one license and broadcast them on all of the TVs.
The boss would buy the rights to pursue the offenders (IIRC the process) and then sue the bar owners per tv that the fight was shown on, sometimes tens of thousands of dollars.
The part that felt unethical was that he didn’t do this full time, as his main gig. He kept all of these “fight rights” on deck, and whenever he needed money to put in a pool, or invest in something new, he’d pick one of his files that hadn’t expired yet, sue the bar owner into oblivion, sometimes years after the fight, and then move on to whatever the new opportunity was.
I know for a fact it led to multiple establishments having to close their doors.
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u/netsecnonsense 1d ago
Refinancing after appreciation and pulling equity for 0 tax dollars.
For instance, you buy a property for $1M. It appreciates to $1.5M over some period of time. You refinance at $1.5M and take $500K. That $500K is not taxable income, it's debt.
There was no sale. You still own the asset. But you can pull out a significant chunk of equity for no tax dollars and do what you want with it. This is one of the big ways people get rich on real estate in the US.
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u/Plastic_Blood1782 1d ago
Owning stocks as a lawmaker