How Low Can You Go? Here Are 15 Easy but Unethical Ways to Make Money

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Just about everyone would like to make some quick, easy cash. Most prefer to do it legally, but others are fine with cutting corners or outright breaking the law.

We don’t condone or encourage any of these, but there are some unethical ways to earn easy money without getting involved in drugs or prostitution.

Please note that some of these are not only unethical but also illegal!

Swindle Beer-Thirsty Teens

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It’s not uncommon for teens to hang out in parking lots of grocery and convenience stores and offer cash to 21+ customers to buy alcohol for them. You might have done it yourself! You can take the money and run, and you won’t have to worry about being arrested for buying alcohol for a minor (just for larceny).

“Remove” Computer Viruses That Don’t Exist

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Most people don’t know how to detect or remove computer viruses. If you’re tech-savvy and convincing, you can get people to pay you for “protecting” them from identity theft.

Fake a Disability

Woman in a wheelchair using a ramp
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Crowdfunding has helped a lot of people in desperate need, but it’s also been a bonanza for scam artists. One popular scam has been faking a disability so that others will help you pay for your accommodations and therapy.

Fake a Terminal Illness

Sick woman sitting at the window of the house and drink the bitter medicine. Girl drinks a medicine. She is being treated for a cough. Treatment of influenza.
Image Credit: Sushitsky Sergey/Shutterstock.

Another one that tugs at the heartstrings is an appeal for support as you’re dying from cancer or something else. Deeply ethically challenged people can rake in donations for expensive treatments they’ll never undergo and to support families they don’t have.

Sell Miracle Cures to Terminally Ill People

Medicine pills package in shopping basket with pharmacy drugstore shelves blur background.
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If you’re not up to putting on a convincing show about your terminal illness, you can capitalize on the real terminal illnesses others suffer. How your conscience handles that when those people die anyway is something we can’t imagine.

Start a Cult

group of people in focus group.
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If you’re charismatic and have a good pitch to sell, why not start your cult? People will willingly give you money, it’s not illegal, and you can laugh all the way to the bank.

Steal and Return Shopping Carts

Empty blue shopping cart on the parking lot of the American mall center.
Image Credit: Alexander Oganezov/Shutterstock.

People take shopping carts from store premises all the time. Many stores will pay for returned carts since that’s cheaper than buying new ones. Just make sure you don’t do it at the same store more than once!

Catch and Blackmail Pedophiles

Cute young brunette girl in sunglasses walks along the Los Angeles waterfront with palm trees and streets on a summer day.
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You pose as a young girl online and reel in the predators. Once you have the screenshots, you blackmail them. Later, you turn them in, anyway. Maybe it’s not so unethical after all.

Fake a Charity Project

Donate Charity Give Help Offering Volunteer
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Here’s another way to unethically use crowdfunding to your benefit. At least you’re not preying on dying people this time.

Tutor Stupid Kids With Rich Parents

girl on computer getting online tutor.
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Wealthy parents will pay high rates to get help for their struggling children. The only thing unethical here is knowing the pupil is too dumb to ever benefit and not leveling with the parents.

Rip Off Your Schoolmates

reseller is photographing used clothes in a box for online Selling.
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If you’re reading this and you’re a student, you can rip off your fellow students. Just buy chewing gum, soda, or something else students like and then sell it to them for super-inflated prices.

Sell a Get-Rich-Quick Scheme

a pyramid scheme in the hands of a fraudster. The concept of exchange in financial markets is the collapse of the financial system of capitalism.
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It doesn’t matter whether or not it works. What matters is getting people to buy your “secrets” to success.

Fake Homelessness

A homeless sleeping on a wooden bench
Image Credit: Poetry Photography/Shutterstock.

Just make a cardboard sign, stand at a busy location, look down and out, and reap the generosity of others. You won’t get rich, but you might take enough to pay for dinner!

Charge People to Park Where It’s Free to Park

Empty parking lot number signage.
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This works. People have created fake stands that they place at the entrances of public parking lots, and then they charge people to park. A big downside is that you’re on public display if the authorities find out what you’re up to.

Fake Love to Reap Financial Benefits

Close up of a couple in love flirting at home and holding hands.
Image Credit: Goksi/Shutterstock.

 

For ages, people who are young and attractive have been pretending to be smitten with wealthy, often older people. You don’t even have to go as far as getting married; you can just go for shorter-term rewards like gifts and access to credit accounts.

18 Jobs You Can Do Without Ever Leaving Your Home (Or Your Pajamas)

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When you can’t leave home for work or simply don’t want to, there is a wealth of jobs you can do from home.

Some of them require specific types of experience, while others you can learn as you do them. Here are 18 jobs you can do without leaving home.

18 Jobs You Can Do Without Ever Leaving Your Home (Or Your Pajamas)

19 of the Best Stay-At-Home Job Ideas

Young woman in yellow sweater working with laptop and phone on the bench in the city.
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Earning money does not have to involve a commute or going to a place of work anymore. Thanks to modern technology, anyone can now work from anywhere as long as they have a strong internet connection. Because of this, there are now alternative ways of having full-time employment without leaving the comforts of your own home.

19 of the Best Stay-At-Home Job Ideas

20 Ways Make Money Really Fast

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Maybe you have some unexpected bills to pay. Maybe you want to move out of your parent’s home into a place of your own. Maybe you need to make a down payment on a new car. Whatever it is, you need to make some money fast.

Fortunately, there are a lot of good ways to do that!

20 Ways Make Money Really Fast

 

19 Ways Lazy People Make Money Without a Job

Lazy young man with bowl of chips watching TV while lying on floor at home.
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Technically, almost any endeavor that earns you money and involves activity on your part is a job. However, in a practical sense, most of us think of a job as something regular, i.e. what you do for a living. There are other ways to earn money without a traditional job that follows a set schedule and pays a set wage.

Many of them are things you can do just a single time or on the side according to your schedule. Some have the potential to turn into full-time jobs on their own.

19 Ways Lazy People Make Money Without a Job

6 Great Ways To Make Money Fast

Cash in hands dollars. Dollars in man's hands.
Image Credit: sinenkiy/DepositPhotos.

Nearly half of Americans are living with no savings at all. This becomes a serious problem when they are faced with unexpected expenses or a decline in income. If you need ways to make money fast, there are plenty of ways to do it if you are willing to exert some effort. Here are some of the best ways to make money fast.

6 Great Ways To Make Money Fast

 

Author: Robert Sihler

Bio:

Robert Sihler is an educator, freelance writer, and rock climbing guide and instructor living with his family in Driftwood, Texas. In his spare time, he enjoys reading fiction, streaming films, completing crossword puzzles, and rock climbing. When he goes on vacation, he likes to visit the mountains of the West and climb remote, obscure peaks that have seen few or no prior ascents.

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