25 Legal But Unethical Ways of Making Money
Nathan Johnson
Published
02/07/2024
in
ftw
In our late-stage capitalistic society, sometimes you have to look out for yourself, and the best way to do that is by playing the game and making some money. But if massive corporations don't have to worry about ethics in their methods, why should you? Here are 25 legal, but questionable ways to make a little extra dough on the side. But hey, you do what you gotta do, right?
The internet is a powerful tool when it comes to selling, and also exploitation. People will buy just about anything from second-hand tech to fake herbal remedies. All you have to do is make a few sketchy claims about what you're selling, and as long as nobody can prove wrongdoing, you're all set. Make sure to quickly honor any calls for re-funds too. Targeting the "holistic healing" crowd could be a good way to go.
Speaking of online tech, a little knowledge goes a long way. Dozens of schemes from coding services to A.I. cam models are profitable endeavors. You can even invoice large corporations for things, and they'll probably pay you, (although that last one isn't legal). You deserve more cash; who cares how you get it? Check out these unethical money hacks for tips.
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1.
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. -
2.
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, you'll be long gone before they even begin to suspect its not legit. -
3.
Have a place to rent and charge $50 application fee. Keep accepting applications but don't approve anyone. -
4.
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. -
5.
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. -
6.
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, spiritual health 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 an mmr shot. -
7.
Get hired at a labor type job, and then report to 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 poorly, 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. Very easy to prove. And it's not illegal because your boss should have followed safety protocol, and shouldn't have retaliation fired you. I wouldn't even feel bad in the slightest. -
8.
Payday loans and Rent-To-Own schemes. -
9.
Lend money to people who have no other option so you can abusively charge overdraft fees, while your biggest clients get literally millions in tax cuts for literally no reason. -
10.
A girl I knew put herself through college selling only pics of her feet to gross men. I saw the pics and money transfers. -
11.
Spells and curses on Etsy. There’s a seemingly large market for them. Some aren’t *that* unethical, whilst some are very very exploitative. They go for hundreds and you don’t need to send proof. Easy money. -
12.
Invest heavily in private prisons and weapons manufacturing. Look into Sin Stocks as well. -
13.
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. -
14.
Become an internet guru about something, and sell courses about nothing. -
15.
Use AI to start an [Exclusive]Fans. -
16.
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. -
17.
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. -
18.
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 e-comm website. 4. Create some basic social media ads. 5. Start 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. -
19.
Sue rich people over dumb stuff and hope for the best. If they settle out of court it can be very lucrative. -
20.
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. -
21.
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 the dollar figures they got were eye opening. -
22.
Hold a raffle for a gold fish. £1 a ticket… sell 500 tickets.Draw a winner. Everyone else takes the L and moves on with their lives.Contact the winner and say the fish died. Give them a refund.They are happy.You walk away with £499…. Rinse and repeat. -
23.
Writing essays for college/uni students. -
24.
Sell your e-girl persona bath water. -
25.
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. -
26.
Selling diet plans to 50+ divorced women, not really unethical but they can find that information with a simple search -
27.
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 stuff 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. -
28.
Be a chiropractor.
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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.
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