25 Unethical Money-Making Strategies That Remain Within Legal Boundaries
It depends on your ethical choice.
In the vast and sometimes murky world of the internet, discussions on various topics can take unexpected turns. One such intriguing conversation unfolded on Reddit, where someone sought advice on immoral yet legal ways to make money.
The thread garnered attention, and some individuals shared their insights, revealing a spectrum of strategies that toe the line between legality and morality.
More info: Reddit
Image source: Dahns, KATRIN BOLOVTSOVA
Sue rich people over dumb s**t and hope for the best
If they settle out of court it can be very lucrative
Image source: T0mDeMwoan, ThisIsEngineering
Use AI to start an onlyfans
Image source: Lallner, Karolina Grabowska
Payday loans and Rent-To-Own schemes
Image source: MasterBettyPain, Lintoe
My cousin came to me one Thursday saying he needed an extra $200 by Sunday. Told him good luck. He went out and bought 4 bottles of everclear, some jugs of Walmart apple cider, cinnamon sticks, and mason jars. Simmered it in a pot for like an hour and jarred them all and wrote $25 on top of each. Called his country friends and told them he made homemade apple spiced moonshine. 25 EA or two for 40. He had $400 the next day. Sometimes I hate him.
Image source: cyrixlord, Helena Lopes
Rapture pet insurance. For 300.00 per pet up front, I,a certified atheist will come to your home and care for your animals in the event you are raptured
Image source: Arendyl
Go to a rave and sell individually wrapped brownies for $20 each.
You never explicitly said they had weed in them but for $20 people assume..
best part is, youll be long gone before they even begin to suspect its not legit
Image source: rcuadro, Gustavo Fring
Have a place to rent and charge $50 application fee. Keep accepting applications but don't approve anyone
Image source: mibonitaconejito, ROMAN ODINTSOV
A girl I knew put herself through college selling only pics of her feet to gross men with fetishes. I saw the pics and money transfers
Edit: One guy paid her nearly a grand to have pro pics taken of her stepping on food. Mashed potatoes, birthday cake. Suddenly I felt like a moron for going to my 9-5
Image source: alanmichaels, John Kratz
My dad had this great idea to go door to door installing peep holes, and you can start your pitch with, “I bet you would have liked to know who was on the other side of this door” each cost like 5 bucks, install for 50 and be done in 5 minutes.
Image source: NinaQuincyy, Yaroslav Shuraev
Selling diet plans to 50+ divorced women, not really unethical but they can find that information with a simple search
Image source: TenthSpeedWriter, Lukas
Taking Free and Open Source Software that performs niche tasks, slapping a basic Python/JS/$PopularLanguage API around it, making the vaguest and least binding promises of service & support, and selling it as a subscription service for hundreds or thousands of dollars a year per user.
There's an awful lot of s**t that's only one step away from being accessible to the ordinary tech user, and there's QUITE A LOT of money in closing that gap for those who don't feel like hammering out shell scripts or setting configs.
Looking at y'all, PDF conversion services. Lookin' *right* at y'all.
Image source: dowhatchafeel, Thom Gonzalez
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.
Image source: DatDenis, RDNE Stock project
Sell your e-girl persona bath water
Image source: 073068075, Magda Ehlers
Selling things that cater to conspiracy theorists, as long as you're not trying to list it as an actual medicine and it has no negative effects you're good to go. You can sell all the anti 5G blinking diodes in a scifi looking piece of plastic, spiritually health bettering candles that are just wax with some lemon oil or vanilla, toxin removal pads for feet that turn black in contact with water, essential oils. The unethical part is catering to (and using for profit) gullible people that'd rather have their kid die in their arms from a preventable disease than take a mmr shot.
Image source: Due_Cap_9823, Life Of Pix
Get hired at a labor type job, and then report your employer the first time that you see any safety violations (which you will on your very first day most likely). Your boss will find out that you reported it, and will start treating you like s**t and eventually fire you. Now you sue your ex employer for "retaliation firing". You will win, for sure...you've got a paper trail with OSHA as the person who reported them etc...very easy to prove. And it's not illegal because your boss #1 should have followed safety protocol, and #2 shouldn't have retaliation fired you. I wouldn't even feel bad in the slightest.
Image source: caesiumbathbombs, Anete Lusina
Spells and curses on Etsy. There’s a seemingly large market for them. Some aren’t *that* unethical (e.g. “break up spell” - they’re the unethical ones for requesting it) whilst some are very very exploitative (e.g. “get pregnant spell”). They go for hundreds and you don’t need to send proof. Easy money?
Image source: ThatJankyDoll
Invest heavily in private prisons and weapons manufacturing.
Look into Sin Stocks as well.
Image source: fusionsplice, Pixabay
Learned about this one on the radio this morning. Obituary thieves. They will snipe trending names off of google and run fake obituaries with fake egregious information to drive up web traffic to advertised sites. The New York Post just did an article about it when a team from India ran a bunch of fake articles about a college kid who died.
Image source: kronositself, PhotoMIX Company
Pyramid Scheme, Selling stuff on the internet with misleading information, or become an internet guru about something and sell courses about nothing. (Tiktok has alot of these)
Image source: PenislavVaginavich, Alesia Kozik
Set up a negative option billing program - aka free trial offers.
1. Get some hot/popular vitamins from China in bulk - they will even ship in unlabeled containers.
2. Create a brand a label for your product.
3. Set up a basic ecomm website.
4. Create some basic social media ads.
5. Offer a subscription where you offer one container free and then start charging a monthly fee if they do not cancel within the first month.
6. Mark up the product 200-1000%.
7. Profit.
As long as you stay on top of customer complaints and offer refunds quickly, you can make a ton of money this way and it's not illegal, just shady.
Image source: HumbleAd4170, wiki commons
Serious answer:
Buy something in bulk on AliExpress at a nice discount on top of the already cheap prices.
Saw the items on eBay for a lot more or open up a booth at the mall or flea market selling at a substantial markup.
AliExpress is filled with bootleg gaming systems that people will buy.
Image source: Robestos86, Buro Millennial
Well, I've been trying to get a screen protector for my phone. I've ordered several ones for under £5 on eBay, and even though I select the correct model they are always generic and wrong.
I mark as wanting to return, take a photo and write the truth, it doesn't fit despite me picking the right one
They refund and never ask for them back. Sell on.
Image source: girl212, Lisa Fotios
Writing essays for college/uni students
Image source: mintpepper, IT services EU
Not 100% sure on legality (check with a lawyer) but I remember back over a decade ago when I was working in IT there was a somewhat common/uncommon scam where a business would receive a shipment of knockoff printer ink cartridges that they hadn't ordered. Then later, an invoice would arrive for them.
Now you didn't order them and no one ever asked for them back so you could just keep them or use them or throw them away. You'd never get sued for not paying the invoice because there's no contract to enforce. But many companies would assume they legitimately ordered something that they had received and pay the invoice.
I imagine it's hard to prosecute this as fraud because while it's certainly deceitful, the company payed of their own volition for goods they actually received even if they didn't initiate the transaction.
There's also a related scam that is for sure illegal where you skip the cheap goods part and just spam companies with invoices to see who pays. People have definitely been prosecuted and jailed for that but iirc the dollar figures they got were eye opening.
Image source: xkcdismyjam, Pixabay
Look for used cars being sold on FB marketplace, Craigslist, etc. usually can get the VIN, if not go check out the car and get the VIN, plug that into carvana, vroom, etc. if listing is cheaper than what carvana is buying for, buy it and sell it off to carvana. Boom, profit.
#1
Image source: Dahns, KATRIN BOLOVTSOVA
Sue rich people over dumb s**t and hope for the best
If they settle out of court it can be very lucrative
#2
Image source: T0mDeMwoan, ThisIsEngineering
Use AI to start an onlyfans
#3
Image source: Lallner, Karolina Grabowska
Payday loans and Rent-To-Own schemes
#4
Image source: MasterBettyPain, Lintoe
My cousin came to me one Thursday saying he needed an extra $200 by Sunday. Told him good luck. He went out and bought 4 bottles of everclear, some jugs of Walmart apple cider, cinnamon sticks, and mason jars. Simmered it in a pot for like an hour and jarred them all and wrote $25 on top of each. Called his country friends and told them he made homemade apple spiced moonshine. 25 EA or two for 40. He had $400 the next day. Sometimes I hate him.
#5
Image source: cyrixlord, Helena Lopes
Rapture pet insurance. For 300.00 per pet up front, I,a certified atheist will come to your home and care for your animals in the event you are raptured
#6
Image source: Arendyl
Go to a rave and sell individually wrapped brownies for $20 each.
You never explicitly said they had weed in them but for $20 people assume..
best part is, youll be long gone before they even begin to suspect its not legit
#7
Image source: rcuadro, Gustavo Fring
Have a place to rent and charge $50 application fee. Keep accepting applications but don't approve anyone
#8
Image source: mibonitaconejito, ROMAN ODINTSOV
A girl I knew put herself through college selling only pics of her feet to gross men with fetishes. I saw the pics and money transfers
Edit: One guy paid her nearly a grand to have pro pics taken of her stepping on food. Mashed potatoes, birthday cake. Suddenly I felt like a moron for going to my 9-5
#9
Image source: alanmichaels, John Kratz
My dad had this great idea to go door to door installing peep holes, and you can start your pitch with, “I bet you would have liked to know who was on the other side of this door” each cost like 5 bucks, install for 50 and be done in 5 minutes.
#10
Image source: NinaQuincyy, Yaroslav Shuraev
Selling diet plans to 50+ divorced women, not really unethical but they can find that information with a simple search
#11
Image source: TenthSpeedWriter, Lukas
Taking Free and Open Source Software that performs niche tasks, slapping a basic Python/JS/$PopularLanguage API around it, making the vaguest and least binding promises of service & support, and selling it as a subscription service for hundreds or thousands of dollars a year per user.
There's an awful lot of s**t that's only one step away from being accessible to the ordinary tech user, and there's QUITE A LOT of money in closing that gap for those who don't feel like hammering out shell scripts or setting configs.
Looking at y'all, PDF conversion services. Lookin' *right* at y'all.
#12
Image source: dowhatchafeel, Thom Gonzalez
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.
#13
Image source: DatDenis, RDNE Stock project
Sell your e-girl persona bath water
#14
Image source: 073068075, Magda Ehlers
Selling things that cater to conspiracy theorists, as long as you're not trying to list it as an actual medicine and it has no negative effects you're good to go. You can sell all the anti 5G blinking diodes in a scifi looking piece of plastic, spiritually health bettering candles that are just wax with some lemon oil or vanilla, toxin removal pads for feet that turn black in contact with water, essential oils. The unethical part is catering to (and using for profit) gullible people that'd rather have their kid die in their arms from a preventable disease than take a mmr shot.
#15
Image source: Due_Cap_9823, Life Of Pix
Get hired at a labor type job, and then report your employer the first time that you see any safety violations (which you will on your very first day most likely). Your boss will find out that you reported it, and will start treating you like s**t and eventually fire you. Now you sue your ex employer for "retaliation firing". You will win, for sure...you've got a paper trail with OSHA as the person who reported them etc...very easy to prove. And it's not illegal because your boss #1 should have followed safety protocol, and #2 shouldn't have retaliation fired you. I wouldn't even feel bad in the slightest.
#16
Image source: caesiumbathbombs, Anete Lusina
Spells and curses on Etsy. There’s a seemingly large market for them. Some aren’t *that* unethical (e.g. “break up spell” - they’re the unethical ones for requesting it) whilst some are very very exploitative (e.g. “get pregnant spell”). They go for hundreds and you don’t need to send proof. Easy money?
#17
Image source: ThatJankyDoll
Invest heavily in private prisons and weapons manufacturing.
Look into Sin Stocks as well.
#18
Image source: fusionsplice, Pixabay
Learned about this one on the radio this morning. Obituary thieves. They will snipe trending names off of google and run fake obituaries with fake egregious information to drive up web traffic to advertised sites. The New York Post just did an article about it when a team from India ran a bunch of fake articles about a college kid who died.
#19
Image source: kronositself, PhotoMIX Company
Pyramid Scheme, Selling stuff on the internet with misleading information, or become an internet guru about something and sell courses about nothing. (Tiktok has alot of these)
#20
Image source: PenislavVaginavich, Alesia Kozik
Set up a negative option billing program - aka free trial offers.
1. Get some hot/popular vitamins from China in bulk - they will even ship in unlabeled containers.
2. Create a brand a label for your product.
3. Set up a basic ecomm website.
4. Create some basic social media ads.
5. Offer a subscription where you offer one container free and then start charging a monthly fee if they do not cancel within the first month.
6. Mark up the product 200-1000%.
7. Profit.
As long as you stay on top of customer complaints and offer refunds quickly, you can make a ton of money this way and it's not illegal, just shady.
#21
Image source: HumbleAd4170, wiki commons
Serious answer:
Buy something in bulk on AliExpress at a nice discount on top of the already cheap prices.
Saw the items on eBay for a lot more or open up a booth at the mall or flea market selling at a substantial markup.
AliExpress is filled with bootleg gaming systems that people will buy.
#22
Image source: Robestos86, Buro Millennial
Well, I've been trying to get a screen protector for my phone. I've ordered several ones for under £5 on eBay, and even though I select the correct model they are always generic and wrong.
I mark as wanting to return, take a photo and write the truth, it doesn't fit despite me picking the right one
They refund and never ask for them back. Sell on.
#23
Image source: girl212, Lisa Fotios
Writing essays for college/uni students
#24
Image source: mintpepper, IT services EU
Not 100% sure on legality (check with a lawyer) but I remember back over a decade ago when I was working in IT there was a somewhat common/uncommon scam where a business would receive a shipment of knockoff printer ink cartridges that they hadn't ordered. Then later, an invoice would arrive for them.
Now you didn't order them and no one ever asked for them back so you could just keep them or use them or throw them away. You'd never get sued for not paying the invoice because there's no contract to enforce. But many companies would assume they legitimately ordered something that they had received and pay the invoice.
I imagine it's hard to prosecute this as fraud because while it's certainly deceitful, the company payed of their own volition for goods they actually received even if they didn't initiate the transaction.
There's also a related scam that is for sure illegal where you skip the cheap goods part and just spam companies with invoices to see who pays. People have definitely been prosecuted and jailed for that but iirc the dollar figures they got were eye opening.
#25
Image source: xkcdismyjam, Pixabay
Look for used cars being sold on FB marketplace, Craigslist, etc. usually can get the VIN, if not go check out the car and get the VIN, plug that into carvana, vroom, etc. if listing is cheaper than what carvana is buying for, buy it and sell it off to carvana. Boom, profit.