HYIP Scams are All the Rage on Social Media and in Crypto Currency Circles.
The High Yield Investment Programs better known as HYIP target new users of Bitcoin promising huge returns in a short amount of time. The problem is that these are the purest kind of Ponzi scheme available.
What is a Ponzi Scheme?
Examples of HYIP that You Need to Watch Out For.
Why Do People Fall for This Shit?
Ok, I admit that when I was a Bitcoin newbie back in 2014 I did it. Yes I admit it, are you happy now? Everything was going along great for about a week before the payouts started arriving late and then the site disappeared along with .25 BTC. Yes, at the time it was only a little over $100 worth of BTC but it still pissed me off and I vowed to learn about these shady programs.
Imagine all the poor schmucks who lost much more than I did. It must have been quite painful. The worst part is that it makes Bitcoin look bad even though Bitcoin is innocent.
What Can You Do About HYIP Scams?
The next time you see one on Steemit, Flag it! If you see them on a Facebook group, report them to the admins. It is quite simple, they can't survive if we stomp them out.
If Something is Too Good to Be True, You Need to Investigate.
I honestly do not understand how people fall into this kind of schemes.
Great post as aways my friend :)
Upvoted.
I hate scams that use cryptocurrency to get scammed money, it gives a crypto a bad name and can drive away investors
@cryptotraderx I agree; so many people associate cypto with with pure Ponzi schemes.
genesis mining isn't a scam ,is it?
No, it is cloud mining. I just don't like their service. I prefer Bitclub.
Can you join Bitclub from the U.S. ?
The exit scams on HYIP are going to be brutal for the poorest in the community. I made a mocking post where i asked people to use my referral link so you can get scammed. No one thankfully did. I fell for cloud mining LTC coin when it was a lot less than it is now. Total exit scam.
Greed compels humans to do stupid things. I was one of them. They got me once and that was it.
I was pitched recently about Bitconnect. Everything I researched suggested it was probably what you are describing... no solid names or company for contact info, guaranteed returns specified, and altho no one could prove one way or another that the so-called "software profiting from the volatility of BTC" did or did not exist, most felt they were simply paying older investors with new money.
I've also seen a couple of Bitconnect articles here that were flagged. so I'm guessing the Steemit community has "ruled" against it? And also asking, is this one that you warn about? I actually haven't replied to the guy that got me looking at it yet, I just don't feel good after doing some cursory research on it.
I took one look at Bitconnect and said, "NOPE". It is not exactly an HYIP like I showed but it looks similar even though they have their own currency.
Okay thanks for the insight. I didn't want to accuse them of such with no evidence or expertise so your feedback is appreciated! I also said "Nope" it just took me longer, haha.
Oh. I am also in bitconnect. I don't know if it is trustworthy or a HYIP.
Thanks for the heads up my friend, much appreciated.
The amount of scams like these is unbelievable... however to the people saying this reduces the reputation of cryptos, I would answer that ponzi schemes existed long before the first cryptocurrencies, and most of ponzi schemes are still fiat-based
Upvoted and followed.
Also beware of NEW mining services. The returns are much lower, and they're presented as genuine cloud mining services. They operate for @6 months then go offline.
Referral schemes, aggressive marketing and a relatively new service should be signs of alarm.
Keep safe
Thank you, there have been a few mining scams as well.
I've never heard of these HYIP schemes until now.
Thank you for spreading awareness and I'll be sure to flag them now.
Can't believe some people are willing to scam people.
Thank you @hilarski
Believe scamming is huge business the problem is no one really talks about their losses, only their wins.
Thanks for sharing this. It can save a lot of money for people who are interested in this !
People can easily succumb because of the desire to quickly earn or return their money after a big loss. And fall for this scheme.
Thanks for your warning man. Trying to be as careful as i can.
Here this meme seems pretty appropriate :)
source
In general to me human psychology seems pretty fascinating: we spend such a significact share of our life working day jobs, and then later some guy we've never seen shows us a graph on the internet and we just hit "transfer"?
And then we all take our iPods out and turn on Kelly Clarkson's "What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger".
Of course stronger, buddy. Stronger than ever.
"If Something is Too Good to Be True, You Need to Investigate."
Preach
Thanks for the warning. I will now know=)
Sadly there are scams in pretty much everything and everywhere these days. This is definitely no different @hilarski.
There was a cloud mining scam called hashocean. It looked so promising with high rewards, 3 days before I invested it went down. That was a close shave as I would have lost around $400. I wish there could be a way to stop these scams forever. Thank you for sharing
Wow, you just missed it. Good for you! I had friends that got scammed in that one.
Great work!
Upv and follow You!
Greetings from POland
Deazydee
I haven't fallen for any HYIP scams, but back in 2012 I got scammed by Cryptsy and lost 0.5 BTC. All throughout 2014-15 I was trying to sign in to my account and they kept "resetting" the password on me. There is a pending class action lawsuit that I am a part of, but I won't count on ever receiving any compensation. :(
Cryptsy forever will be a stain on the Bitcoin history books.
There are so many scams on the web that many people fall easily for the reward of getting money quickly. We must be alert and report it
BitcoinsBrain is a scam as well. It worked for a bit, then on or about June 5th, 2017 it stopped paying. There are dozens of others who have had the same experience with BitcoinsBrain. I lost around $800 USD.
Scammers are all over the internet.. I remember back in 2015 I lost 0.15.. they were promising me 0.3 bitcoin in return after 2 days .. it was a mining company and I was new to bitcoin I did not know anything about mining
Similar situation to mine.
Hey Thanks for telling about this scam scam everywhere :(
Another valuable post!
Thanks for all you do for everyone here!
SteemON!
Good thing you mentioned the word "newbie" cuz myself got into some :/ Wish i had read it earlier, hope other newbies read it too
Good warning post. It is actually a common knowledge. Many of us fell for this scam sometime ago.
Hey Buddy!
Another really great post that is very valuable to many people.
I felt is was so valuable I included it in my new "MUST READ" article.
Keep up the good work. Check out the post if u like.
SteemON!
https://steemit.com/community/@quinneaker/quinn-s-quality-content-curation-q2c2-episode-3
Thanks for sharing this; the HYIPs are a straight con. Someone ALWAYS ends getting burned.
Would you include Bitconnect in this category?
Not an HYIP but I won't touch it.
Bitconnect now ranked 10th on coinmarketcap.com with a market cap of almost 400 million. Also price of Bitconnect Coin itself staying pretty stable... Why not "touch" it? ;) @rad007 @hilarski
There are a lot of them and some are falling right now as gladiacoin, mecoin,twobitcoin and the list is very very big
Those are different than what I am talking about but definitely shitcoin scams.
Ok hilarski but all are made under a scheme ponzi
Common sense says everything about these types of scams is clearly a scam, but common sense isn't to common these days. Good post!
I've been seeing them all over steemit lately. hmmm
nice post
thank for sharing
Very true. "https://bitcolesium.com/?a=account" this is one more site promising return of 14%-20% hourly.
I hope that is not an affiliate link.
Its a WARNING for user NOT to join. If it would have been affiliate link then in place of "account" my name would have been there.
Good job, thank you for sharing, and have reminded me, every post you always valuable to me. Success continues for you.
I upvoted this and also resteemed!
why steemit dollar is decreasing
Hello @hilarski
I'm in agreement here, to the point that I'd like you to throw some of your power around regarding a fraud on Steemit itself.
The @geetinstitute here seems to be marketing itself as a far-too-efficient engine, one that's a very obvious scam.
@alexbeyman is the sword here, and he's now involved with a flag war against a GEET supporting whale. He wrote an article here on this.
I'd love to see you help him out, and crush a fraud who markets heretical, fraudulent science and technology. To claim that technology works when it does not is heresy. I am the @heretickitten, so I'm most certainly not going to stand for this.
I offered to utilize the scientific method, to verify if their engine was real, but of course, there is no response. I think it's pretty wrong to collect profit due to false claims that they are unwilling to have tested, so if you wanna throw your weight around, I'd be happy to see you join our little battle.
Yes expose and let them die.
Have we had any cryptos turn out to be scams? Was the site you invested in a cryptocoin platform?
Yep don't follow the HYPE bad dum tss
Most victims of this scam are very greedy and gullieble individuals,how on earth will they expect such to survive long.Mosly its the early birds that gets the worms
That's for the warning, I'm a long time silver stacker and coin collector, just starting to explore the world of cryptos, its great to hear from all the experience here on steemit
Yes, I did it too. Wasted my time and money. Thanks for reminding, I'll sure flag these type of scam post if I find it.
thats why you have to be smart and "catch" some steem ;)
Ya'll telling me USI is a scam?
Just asking, not taunting.