Private programs, refunds and naive investors

by Tony Clifton

Imagine you were a scammer.

What would you want? What would be your most important goals?

To get as much money as you can and to get out clean.

Most HYIP investors seem to have problem putting themselves in the scammer's shoes. This of course means that they are honest people and hardly can think like a scammer, but also makes them naive and pliable to fraud.

In two occasions I regularly see some otherwise smart people to turn naive when it comes to high yield investing.

Private Programs

It's widely known that when a program announce going private that often means they are about to scam. However if the program keeps paying after few months of closing for new members, most investors turn into easy believers.

Their arguments are simple: "If they were a scam why would they not accept new spends?". "If they were scam, why would they be paying and not just pack and run away?".

These arguments of course make sense. But I have answers which also make sense. Let's before that see the other occasion:

Programs Paying Refunds

This does not happen so often in the HYIP world, but recently we've seen some major scams to issue refunds before disappearing (MPDW, GoldenRocks, WiredSurf, FXIG and more).

Of course the first thing which comes to your mind when you see a program to issue refund is that it can't be scam. Why would a scammer pay some of the money out instead of running with all of it? Why did MPDW paid some money at the end, why did GoldenRocks refund some happy members?

There are good reasons for doing this...

The Reasons

In both occasions listed above we have basically one and the same thing - a program which does not take money, but pays out. Just that fact by itself immediately makes most of us think that the HYIP in question is not a scam.

They want us to think that.

It's really as simple as it sounds. They do it because they want us to believe. Why? Just because of their ego and to calm down their destiny? Maybe some con artists have some moral, but the majority do not.

The reasons are mostly two:

Fear

Have you ever done anything wrong in your life? Have you been unfaithful in your marriage, have you skip reporting taxes or have you driven with higher speed that allowed? If ever you've done something wrong you may know what the fear of the consequnces is.

The fear is what makes scammers do everything possible to make you believe they are honest. They are afraid of being caught and put in the jail. We as investors know that this happen very rare, but when you are on the other side, the things are different. Even the slightest danger of being caught breaks your sleep and nerves.

This is especially valid for scams which have provided admin's address and ID. (MPDW or FXIG for example). If people understand that they are scammed and know the admin's name and address they can send authorities against them or just go crazy and visit their houses to "advice" the scammer in person.

That's why instead of just disappearing such programs issue parital refunds, report losses, keep posting in forums or update their members by email about the efforts to "recover" the program.

Future Plans

I can't believe that many investors don't think about this. If you have ever invested long term you shouldn't be surprised that the con artists invest in their fraudient business too. Creating a HYIP scam is a business and these worms are investing in their business in their future.

They issue refunds now to return in the future with their new "limited time" or "private" offer. They are not accepting members now to make us believe that they are for real. Then they will either start accepting members in a new sub-program or just allow the current members (who are completely devoted at this stage are are ready to get a second mortgage) to add more funds to their investments.

Don't be naive, the scammers are not stupid. They don't act straight and their intentions can't be decrypted so easy. They don't follow the simplest logic - if they were doing that, they would never survive the competition. If the scammers were not sophisticated, they wouldn't be able to take so much money from the investors.

There were few real HYIPs who strugled to clean the face of this arena. Most of them just failed, other survived to make 3% - 5% monthly (which is great of course), but most which people considered "real" were just scams. See for example the Scam Warnings at HYWD.info. All these programs were trusted at some point, people were passionately defending them on forums, some of them were private, ID verified and issued refunds. They are all scams now. Browse the net to study their stories and you'll learn a lot about the sophisticated scams.

I still haven't seen the real HYIP which pays 10% monthly or close to this figure. Believing that such exists and will work for your $100 is simply naive.

Published at Apr, 04 '07 ; read 2686 times;

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User comments:

psyko79 at Apr, 04 '07 09:22
This is a really great article Tony! I hope people will learn from this and hopefully stop trusting scammers.
Reply to this comment

clifton at Apr, 04 '07 09:33
Thank you, Psycho. What made me write were few threads in popular forums about 2-3 of the currently big frozen programs. I see these arguments repeated over and over again and most investors don't seem to learn. Even if this aritcle helps one single investor open his eyes, my time woudn't be lost.
Reply to this comment

Dave at Apr, 05 '07 07:57
if you say there is no real HYIP that pays 10% monthly, what kinda range of interest should one be weary of?
Reply to this comment

clifton at Apr, 05 '07 08:01
Dave, I approach all HYIPs as a gamble and play them for fun. There are some real ones (like InfinityShares for example), but they are usually struggling for 5% monthly. NSFG and JoyFund started with double digit ROI, but the returs were too volatile.
Reply to this comment

Dave at Apr, 05 '07 08:02
if you say there is no real HYIP that pays 10% monthly, what is the kinda range of monthly interest that one should be weary of?
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clifton at Apr, 05 '07 09:22
Didn't I already answered that, Dave ;)
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Dave at Apr, 05 '07 10:07
Sorry, That must have been a "glitch in the matrix" i was going to ask about cambistex at 1.2% - 3% daily, doesn't that add up to way beyond 10% monthly? but its listed on this site as approved. I am new to HYIPs, and i stumbled on your site by chance a couple of weeks ago. Its been very enlightening.
Reply to this comment

clifton at Apr, 05 '07 11:02
Thanks for pointing out that, Dave. It's a good idea to read the italic text on the Risky Section of Approved HYIP page: "The programs in this section should be considered high risky gambling. Investing in them can be very rewarding, but you can also loose money. Because many of these programs are money games, we will keep them approved only until they are relatively new. We will try remove these listings long time before they show any problems to ensure that noone invests too late." I invest these programs because I think they will survive some time and make profits. But after a month or so I'll remove Cambistex, because it's most likely just a money game and not a real investment. So we have it listed now, while it is new and fresh and it is relatively safe to invest (early in, early out if you have heard this phrase to be said in the HYIP world). Once I decide it is getting too late, the program will be removed from there. Of course we always give the benefit of doubt that any program could be real, but untill a proof is provided, they are all just games. Hope I am not confusing you ;) We'll probably have to change the title of "Approved HYIPs" because many new readers think this means they are real programs
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Dave at Apr, 05 '07 16:23
Thanks clifton, for the good work. You should keep it up. i took time to digest your entire site, believe me, i am learning fast. I've already lost some money, but its all good. Thanks for the guide.
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Paul at Jun, 09 '07 22:07
Clifton what do you think of cellcfund.com? It seems to be backed by real businessman who runs car rental business. I been in the program for a few months.
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Clifton at Jun, 10 '07 02:45
I am doubtful, because they give fixed ROI, but it could be a long term project. Have you checked any of the DD, Paul?
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Paul at Jun, 10 '07 11:41
I haven't myself but all their information is out in the open and I did call the number and others have checked him out in person. It seems legitimate to me. I really believe this one is legitimate. BTW it now has gone private.
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clifton at Jun, 10 '07 13:23
It's interesting. Do they accept members by invitation? (hint, hint, gimme your ref link ;))
Reply to this comment

Paul at Jun, 10 '07 18:12
Nope its completely closed right now and he stopped the first plan 1(the one month plan). The omnipay issues and problems with e-gold have put the program in a bit of chaos but the admin said we could get paid by money order/check if we didn't want to wait for the e-gold issues. He was even talking about sending out packets for just depositing and withdrawaling off a debit card to take out e-processors out of the question. There have been people who said they visited him and it appears to be a legitimate network of car rental sites. This is the first site that really seems legitimate to me. You should check out MMG thread though that is where the discussions are at .
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