Quick! Can you come up with $100? I know most of you have $100 and a lot more. Some of you have that in your couch cushions, but for those who don't, we have a ton of awesome ways to make money fast (many of which are online).
Any opportunity that promises you'll make money fast overnight, run the other direction. The only time we've ever come across cash that quick is finding a $5 bill on the street. We aren't offering get rich quick scams.
Mystery shopping is a fantastic way to earn some extra money. In fact, some people are able to earn more than just a little extra money. Below are the top 10 mystery shopping companies that will pay you to do in-store shops. I have also listed telephone mystery shopping companies below that (those are great because you don't have to leave.
However, if you're looking for legitimate ways to make some extra money, we got you covered.
- And the only way to fill in the gap—and keep food on the table—is to figure out how to make extra money as fast as possible. So when it comes to taking care of your Four Walls (food, utilities, shelter and transportation), finding ways to increase your money and savings quickly can go a long way.
- How to make money fast ($100-$200 today, $1k-$5k this month) May 26, 2020 8:00 am. Learn how to make money fast (up to $500 today, $5k this month) using these simple, step-by-step methods you can get started with right now.
We've got some money-making ideas for everyone.
Easy, free money
These are a few ways to earn extra cash with minimal effort.
Want to get paid for your opinion? Use a survey site like Survey Junkie. You can share your opinion to help brands deliver better products and services. After you create your profile, they will start matching you to online surveys you can take anywhere, anytime, and on any device.
Completed surveys earn virtual points that can be redeemed for PayPal or gift cards. Survey Junkie is great for anyone interested in earning quick cash from their couch.
If you have some spare time during your lunch break or commercials, it's a great way to make money fast. Sign up for Survey Junkie and make some fast money online.
Most of the online surveys are pretty easy, and you are not required to signup for other services, so no annoying spam mail.
For starters, it's completely free, and you earn 25 free points when you create your account.
Survey JunkieWant to get paid for your opinion? Survey Junkie lets you share yours to help brands deliver better products and services. After creating your profile, they'll start matching you to online surveys you can take anywhere.
What's better than getting paid to do things you're already doing? Getting paid to drink I supposed but getting paid to do something like watch videos, shop, and do searches online is pretty nice too.
When you join Swagbucks, you can get cashback when you buy online from more than 1,500 retailers, including places you probably already shop like Amazon, Target, and Starbucks.
Earn points for each dollar you spend and also get special coupons and deals exclusive to their shoppers.
You can also earn points when you use the Swagbucks Yahoo search engine, and when you watch special videos, Swagbucks has put together.
You can redeem your points for gift cards or get cash back through PayPal.
Do you buy stuff? I'm guessing you do. If so, why not get paid for it?! Ebates has helped its customers earn over $1 billion in cash back at their favorite stores.
They offer coupons and rebates to you when shopping at one of their partner retailers (2,500+)
Ibotta is an app that lets you earn cash back on purchases you make at select stores. They've paid back over $500 million to smart shoppers like you. How much can you save?
We waste a lot of money on things like subscription services we no longer use. When is the last time you went to the gym? But life gets in the way, and we can't keep track of everything.
You might not even realize that you are paying for these things. It would be nice to have an assistant who looked through your bank statements and credit card receipts and found this kind of stuff. But you need $100, so you are too broke to have an assistant.
That's what Trim can do for you.
It combs through your transaction history and looks for subscriptions to things like magazines, gym memberships, or food delivery services. They cancel anything you no longer want to pay for.
TaskRabbit lets you bid on jobs for things like picking up dry cleaning, food shopping, and babysitting.
Lots of little, everyday tasks that others don't want or don't have time to do are up for grab for taskers.
TaskRabbitTask Rabbit connects you to people who need help with their everyday to-dos. Services include moving, shopping, cleaning, and even assembling furniture. Create a profile, find jobs you love at rates you choose and set your schedule.
Some 45% of Americans go on a diet each year, and most of them give up after just a few weeks.
But money is a great motivator, so why not get paid to lose those extra pounds? That's what HealthyWage does.
There is a calculator on the HealthyWage site.
Enter how many pounds you want to lose, how many months it will take, and how much money you want to bet per month on yourself to do it.
Enter your gender, height, current weight, and waist circumference. Based on this information, you'll see how much money you will win if you meet your goal.
I put in some fake numbers (I don't have weight to lose), and my winnings after my bet would be $169.40, which would be a 56.33% return on my investment in six months.
There aren't many investments that give you that kind of return, and you get to control whether you win or not. Pretty cool!
Earny: Receiving refund checks are my favorite past-time – and a great way to make extra money.
As it turns out, stores owe you money all the time, but they don't pay if you don't ask. That's where Earny comes in – they automate everything. It's also 100% free.
EarnyEarny is a Chrome extension that provides 24/7 price tracking and gives real-time price alerts. Shop online, activate cashback and earn up to 20%. You'll get a refund if prices drop after making a purchase.
InstaGC lets you receive digital gift cards for doing things online, like completing surveys, watching videos, and searching the web. Choose from over 350 digitally-delivered gift cards.
You perform tasks to earn points, and the cards can be used online or in-store. They've redeemed over 1.2 million gift cards to date.
The cell phone bill is easily one of the most significant reoccurring monthly bills we have. Since it's so much yearly, It makes sense to optimize it.
It turns out you don't need to pay out the nose for a cell phone; it's time to slash your cell bill. Ting will give you affordable service on the main carrier networks, what more could you want?
You get the same coverage as the big carriers with a much smaller price tag. The average Ting bill is just $23/phone/month. Damn
Fiverr is an online marketplace where freelancers can earn money for their services. You can sign up for free, set up your Gig, and offer your work to a global audience.
Make an online tutorial for something you're good at, car repair, building a bookcase, cooking your signature dish.
Upload it to Youtube and enable monetization. This allows them to put ads on your videos. Want to learn how to get started? Check out 'PolyMatter' on Skillshare.
Skillshare: Want to teach people things but don't want to make them publically for free?
Skillshare is a platform that allows people to create online courses to help others, and if people use your course, Skillshare will pay you.
Want to learn from other creators? There isn't a better place on the internet. Skillshare comes built-in with an audience interested in learning online.
Those ultra-competitive tiger parents want to make sure their special cornflakes get into the best schools, whether that means pre-school for three-year-olds or the Ivy League for eighteen-year-olds.
Wyzant (tutor): They're the place parents and students shop for tutors for a variety of subjects from algebra to science to test prep.
There is a wide range of ages in need of tutors as well, from elementary age through college.
Pick up work when you want – you set your schedule and fees, and Wyzant takes a cut.
Wyzant connects you with students looking for one-on-one instruction. Find ones that fit your location and schedule, set your rate, and get paid hassle-free with direct deposit.
Shopify: Selling stuff is a great way to make extra money, whether you sell things you make or re-sell things you buy.
If you want to build an online store, Shopify makes it easy. They have ready-made templates, so you don't have to spend time designing your store.
We literally sell everything we don't need and sometimes items we got for deals or even free. Shopify is also the favorite platform for drop shippers.
What is dropshipping? It's creating the process of creating an online store (automated) and signing up with a product distributor that will mail products directly to your customers.
Since the products you sell ship directly to your customers, you don't need to hold inventory or mail anything. All you need to do is find cool products and market your website. Some are saying it's the ultimate online business.
Become the Entrepreneur of Your Block
Everyone likes puppies! Look around for the fat ones in your neighborhood. Those are the ones who have parents too lazy to walk them.
But all puppies need and deserve exercise, and you need and deserve $100. Master coin free spin today game.
Join forces with the fat puppies and profit from being a dog walker. Rover.com is where you'd go to find a ton of in-need, dog walker clients.
Who knows, your petsitting side hustle could turn into a small business!
Forget checking Craigslist for part-time gigs. Parents post jobs on Sittercity for everything from a full-time nanny to the occasional part-time, date night sitter.
You can apply for the postings, meet the family, and get hired. The average pay for babysitting is a little over $12 an hour.
Debt Forgiveness: Did you know that credit card companies will forgive some of your debt if you're in trouble? Imagine reducing a $10,000 bill to $4,000 just by calling them and asking.
Not only is this a real thing, but billions of dollars get forgiven every year.
If you aren't comfortable negotiating forgiveness than you can bring on a company like National Debt Relief to negotiate on your behalf.
They take a percentage of what is forgiven, so it's no risk. If they don't get your debt reduced, you don't pay anything.
Coin Master To add friends in the game you will you first need to sign in to your Facebook account. See this post on how to do that. Inviting friends can be done through the pop-ups that you will see in the game while playing, or by tapping on the icon on the top right corner of. Join your Facebook friends and millions of players around the world in attacks, spins and raids to build your viking village to the top! Do you have what it takes to be the next Coin Master. If playback doesn't begin shortly, try restarting your device. Autoplay is paused. You're signed out.
Reduce monthly debt payments: Not all of us are in such a dire situation that we can have our debt forgiven. However, you can cut your payments by up to 80% by refinancing.
Most credit cards have interest rates above 25%, and Credible's refinance loans are as low as 4%. It won't change the amount of your debt, but it can reduce your monthly payment significantly.
Earnest (refinance your student loans): Same idea as above but on your student loans. There is $1.4 trillion in student loan debt outstanding.
When you have student loan debt, it can make it hard to get ahead, invest, or buy a home.
If this sounds familiar, refinancing the debt can not only help you pay it off more quickly, but it can save you money on interest too.
Their interest rates are best-in-class, so we highly recommend them. An hour here can easily save you thousands of dollars.
If you're looking for a low-risk, high interest-earning cash account, Betterment Everyday Cash Reserve, currently offers a 1.37% APY(most savings accounts average a 0.10% APY). Grow your rainy-day fund with no fees. Link your bank account and start saving.
Want to get your money under control?This is our guide to budgeting simply and effectively. We walk you through exactly how to use Mint, what your budget should be, and how to monitor your spending automatically.
Investments
Do you know the best way to make money? You don't? Have you never listened to a single episode or read a single article we've done?! It's growing money while you sleep – investing. Here's how.
Wealthfront is a Robo-Advisor that makes it easier for young investors to get started with the first $5,000 managed for free. They offer investors advanced features like tax-loss harvesting and automatic rebalancing.
Wealthfront also provides free financial planning, investment management, and short-term cash management, all fully automated services.
We have loved Betterment since Day One, and we love it still. It's such an excellent gateway for people who are afraid to invest because you don't have to know anything about money or personal finance or investing to get started. There is also no minimum, and the fees are low.
There is no excuse not to open a Betterment account and start investing now. If you have two minutes and five bucks, you can do it. If you want more information, we wrote a comprehensive review.
There is so much competition between banks that some offer cash bonuses when you open a new account as a way to attract new customers – and for you to save money.
There are usually some stipulations; you use direct deposit or pay a certain number of bills online; the account must be open for a minimum length of time or keep a minimum balance.
But most of the criteria are pretty easy to meet, and signing up can make you a few hundred bucks.
Simply put, Fundrise gets you access to million-dollar real estate deals with a contribution as small as $500!
They get the deals and automatically invest your money based on some simple questions you answer when you first signup. Passive income at its finest.
Last year their return was over 11%! We love what they are doing so much, we've written a full review on them and interviewed their CEO twice!
You know how we feel about rental property. What could be better than having someone pay your mortgage and pay you? It's intimidating to become a landlord, though.
You don't know how to tell a good property from a bad one; you don't know how to fix a sink, you don't know how to screen tenants.
But here's the good news…
Rental Properties for Passive InvestorsOur proven, data-driven approach to building a portfolio of income-producing rental properties that perform in the long-term.
I created a course focusing exclusively on this real estate investing strategy: Rental Properties for Passive Investors.
You'll learn my criteria for finding (and closing) the right property, the foundations of a successful rental business, choosing the best property management team, and much more.
This is a turnkey approach with tenants already in place, and those tenants have been screened. Your only job is to sit back and collect a check.
Make Money Online from Home
We wrote a free in-depth guide for you that cuts through the bullshit. Specifically, we dive into how you can make money online with things like selling digital products and affiliate marketing (including affiliate programs to join).
Learn How to Start a Blog That Earns over $400k a year
Blogging is a lucrative side hustle and a great way to make extra cash. It won't be good money right away, but with a little part-time elbow grease, it can make up a substantial income stream.
Ride and Home Share Hustles
The hourly pay after expenses varies from city to city, but you can expect to make around $10 an hour with this side hustle. In larger cities, it will often be much more and in smaller towns, sometimes a little less.
The appeal of rideshare apps like Uber and Lyft is that you can set your schedule, and there is no commitment.
You can work your regular job and make your $100 in just a few hours on a weekend or some evenings.
Airbnb: If you live in a desirable place, a big city, a charming hamlet, the chances are that someone would like to stay in your home for a few days. And they'll pay you!
Right now, a small studio near the United Nations in NYC, so, far, far from the subway, is renting for $175 a night. If you can crash on a friend's couch for just one night, there's your $100 and then some.
Or, if you've got a spare room, rent that out.
The number of ways to earn extra money in your free time has never been greater!
Admit it, after watching a good robbery movie (Ocean's 11 anyone?), there's a split second where you fantasize about pulling off something similar and walking away with millions.
As a society, we are fascinated with quick ways to make a lot of money. The riskier, the better. The entire 'money heist' genre is a manifestation of that fascination. But, the reality of making money fast illegally is not as glamorous as portrayed in the movies.
Disclaimer:DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS AT HOME PEOPLE. This entire article is for entertainment purposes only. In no way do we condone any of these activities. If you're really in a situation where you are thinking of making money illegally, please seek legal help.
If you really need money quickly and legally, check out how to make $500 dollars fast. Also we have a guide with different options for those who really need money urgently.
For the sake of this article, let's pretend that someone is holding a gun to your head: 'You have one week to come up with $50,000 or I'll be back *evil laugh*'
And for the sake of the article let's pretend you don't do the smart thing and go to the authorities or flee to another country…
You now have one week to make $50,000. Did I mention you're also broke, have $0 in your bank account, no credit line, or anything of value to sell.
How would you do it?
Here are 15 different ways to make money fast illegally.
Contents
- 1 15 Terrible and Illegal Ways on How Make Money Quick Illegally
15 Terrible and Illegal Ways on How Make Money Quick Illegally
1. Sell Pirated or Counterfeit Goods (Copyright Infringement)
Did you know that counterfeit goods account for nearly 10% of global trade – around $500 billion dollars every year?
With such a big pie, it wouldn't be hard to cut yourself a little slice. When we think of selling counterfeit goods, we picture someone selling Louis Vuitton handbags on the street corner for $20. But, just like everything else, the majority of the counterfeit market has moved online. Even Amazon isn't safe from counterfeit goods being sold on their marketplace.
If you were wanting to make money fast illegally, finding physical counterfeit goods to sell might not be easy. An easier way to profit from copyright infringement would be to resell digital products.
You're probably getting flashbacks of the 'You wouldn't steal a car' commercials:
But selling pirated goods could be a lucrative business. These two brothers made over $50,000 selling downloads to pirated movies. Of course, they eventually got caught.
Pirated movies aren't the only things that sell. Nearly every digital good can be downloaded and resold illegally. Anything from mobile apps, online courses, ebooks, to entire websites.
2. Rob a Bank
Ah, what a classic. Get yourself a partner and you could be the next Bonnie and Clyde.
But before you tell the bank teller to give you all their money, there are a few things you should know. Bank robbery is not a lucrative way to make money illegally. In fact, according to the FBI, the average bank robber made only $7,500 for every bank robbery in 2010.
Depending on what state you live in, the punishment for getting caught robbing a bank can be anywhere from a mandatory 3 years to life in prison. I can't say that robbing a bank is a great way to make money…
3. Scam Unsuspecting Victims
Scammers are on a rise. You've probably noticed an increase of robocalls to your phone in the last few years. Or scam emails hitting your inbox promising you millions of dollars from an unknown wealthy relative that recently passed.
These scammers search for gullible victims, usually the elderly, and take as much easy money as they can.
Here are a few ways you can make money illegally as a scammer:
- Sell fake tickets on Ebay or Craigslist. Pretend you have tickets to some desirable sporting event or concert. Of course, you don't have them, but they don't know that. You can always grab a picture of real tickets to the event online somewhere if they want proof. After you get paid, send them the fake tickets or don't send them anything at all. Use Venmo to get paid as a friend so they can't charge it back.
- Phone scams that prey on emotions. This is a pretty common scam that works surprisingly well. The premise is that with the help of social media, you find some kids that are traveling abroad and call a distant relative of theirs posing as one of the kids. On the phone, you tell the relative that you're traveling abroad and ran into some trouble (in the hospital, in jail, etc) and need some money wired. You'll pay them back as soon you're back in the country of course. The key to this is finding a relative that can't recognize the kid's voice and is gullible enough to wire money to some stranger without checking with the parents of the kid first. There are many variations of this scam floating about. It keeps happening because, well, it works.
- Fake check scams. This is another pretty common scam that usually involves Craigslist. Tell someone that you want to buy their car or a big ticket item from craigslist. Next, tell them you're in a foreign country (on vacation, or whatever) so it's hard to send the money directly. But luckily, you have an acquaintance that owes you money living in the states. Tell them that you'll have your friend send them a check for the money they owe you and they should cash the check but wire you the extra money left over. It can take a few days for the bank to realize that the check is fake and if they wire you the money before that, then there's not much they can do. There are many variations of this going around too.
Need some inspiration? Check out fraud.org for a large list of illegal money-making scams people are executing on.
4. Prostitution
Touted as the oldest profession, prostitution is still a viable way to make money illegally – unless you live in Nevada, then it's legal.
Because of the underground and illegal nature of the business, lots of the statistics around prostitution are just good guesses. For example, it's estimated that there are 1-2 million prostitutes working in the United States but no one really knows.
How much money can you make as a prostitute?
That number depends on lots of factors – mostly marketing. How desirable your 'services' are has a huge impact on how much you can charge. Anywhere from $40 – $5,000 is reasonable.
But remember, if you record the act, it's no longer illegal… 'art' is a beautiful thing.
5. Sell Drugs
Selling drugs is one of the most common ways to make quick money illegally.
Of course, it's also a risky business. The more you make, the riskier it gets. You'll not only attract the attention of law enforcement, but you might get heat from other local drug dealers or gangs. This is probably the most dangerous way as you not only risk jail, but also getting killed.
How much money can you make? Again, depends on how high up the food chain you are. Most street-level dealers barely break even if you consider the number of drugs they do themselves. Mid-level dealers can make more, upwards of a few grand a month. Or, you can become like the 'King of Cocaine' himself. It's estimated that Pablo Escobar had a personal income of close to $21.9 billion dollars a year…
6. Smuggle Drugs
Continuing on with the drug-related money-making activities, drug smugglers pop up in the news nearly on a weekly basis.
For good reason too, smuggling drugs from one location to another – usually state to state or country to country – is a profitable business.
The more drugs you smuggle at once, the more profitable the trip. But that also increases the risk of you getting caught and the severity of the punishment. The easiest way to get started smuggling drugs is to travel somewhere where the drug is legal, for example, you could drive to Colorado or California to buy some legal marijuana. Then smuggle the marijuana to other states and sell it for a profit. Of course, this isn't risk-free. If you're caught smuggling drugs into Singapore you'll get killed as they have a death sentence.
7. Hold a Company Hostage (Ransomware)
Ransomware is a newer way to make money illegally.
The concept is to somehow get someone at a company to inadvertently install your ransomware. This virus will lock down all the files on the company's network until you tell it to unlock the files. You now have the power to extort money from the company – especially if the company relies on the files your ransomware locked. Usually, you demand the ransom to be paid in bitcoin, so to make it less traceable.
The hardest parts of this scheme is getting your ransomware on the company's computer and getting away with the ransom. You'd be surprised by how many companies and organizations will actually pay the ransom – you'll have to get paid in a creative way such as bitcoin though to avoid detection!
Need inspiration? Here are a few good ransomware stories.
8. Commit Insurance Fraud
According to the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud, insurance fraud costs nearly $80 billion dollars a year in false claims.
We here about false insurance claims all the time – from phony tainted-food claims to faked deaths to burnt down buildings. People are getting more and more creative with their insurance fraud schemes.
One of the most common insurance frauds is to pretend that a piece of expensive jewelry was stolen and then filing a claim.
But insurance fraud covers everything from purposefully setting your bankrupt business on fire to poisoning your child for a life insurance payout.
Insurance companies are getting better at spotting fraud, however – even employing AI to analyze patterns of claims. Getting caught committing insurance fraud will result in a hefty fine or even jail time depending on the severity of the case.
9. Count Cards
Counting cards is an interesting way to make money.
It's technically not illegal to count cards (as long as you don't use any external devices to help you), but casinos actively work to ban players they think are card counting.
Why? Well because it decreases their profit. For typical blackjack games, the house (casino) has a 1% advantage. Which means they'll typically profit $1 for every $100 pot. If you're a great card counter, you can decrease the house advantage by around 2.5%. Meaning you'll profit around 1.5% on every pot.
If you're playing at a table where the average bet is $100 and you can play 50 hands per hour, that means you'll be profiting around $75 per hour. Not bad – especially if you don't get banned.
Here's a great video explaining card counting in depth:
Pay attention that actually you can earn 100 dollars fast and legally, so is it worth it? Maybe while you're in isolation or quarantine, but it's still lucrative despite the risks.
10. Credit Card Skimming
Has your credit or debit card ever incurred charges that you have no idea how they got there without ever losing your card?
Then you were a victim of credit card skimming.
How does it work?
Well, credit card skimming is a type of credit card theft that involves a small device that the thief would install on an ATM machine, vending machine, or really any type of device that allows credit or debit card transactions. If you use your card at one of these 'infected' devices, the device will capture all the data from your card's magnetic strip and send that data to the thief.
Probably the best way to execute this illegal way of making money is to get a job as a waiter or waitress. Once an unsuspecting victim wants to pay their bill, take their card and use the skimming device. You'll even get an extra tip from the customer most of the time!
11. Become a Pimp
If the idea of selling your body is not really your thing, how about becoming an agent for a sex worker?
A pimp's job can include advertising services, physical protection, and providing a location for the sex worker to engage with clients. You'll basically be running a prostitution business and taking a cut from your workers.
Of course, since being a sex worker is illegal in most of the United States, being a pimp is also illegal.
According to Time, pimps can pull in anywhere between $5,000 to $32,000 per week. These guys (or gals) employed an average of five sex workers at a time.
Being a pimp is more profitable than being a sex worker in most cases.
12. Grow Drugs For Profit
If you're not much of a salesman or just don't like selling drugs, you can always grow the drugs instead.
Of course, only a few drugs can be grown such as marijuana and psilocybin mushrooms.
How much money you can make growing these drugs is dependent on many factors such as how much you're growing, the state of the local drug market, and who you sell to.
Of course, growing marijuana is still illegal in most states, though more and more states are legalizing not only the consumption but also the cultivation of marijuana for personal use. This means that unless you certain permits from the state, you're not allowed to grow your own marijuana with the purpose to distribute and sell for profit.
If you have a green thumb but don't want to grow anything illegal, consider growing gourmet mushrooms for profit.
13. Embezzle Your Employer
If you hate your job and are strapped for cash, embezzling your employer is an option to make money fast illegally.
Typically, the easiest way to embezzle a company is to work in the billing department (go accountaints!). Having access to the books, you can pad the numbers and slowly funnel away money. How exactly to funnel the money to make it as discreet as possible will vary from company to company.
The key to not getting caught is to do it as slowly as possible. It's easier to hide a few hundred dollars than a few thousand dollars. Though, depending on the size of the company there's a good chance that that can go unnoticed as well.
White Collar Crime usually doesn't have that long of a jail sentence and involves no physical harm.
14. Steal and Sell People's Identity
Identity theft is so common that most people can name at least one person affected by identity theft.
Easy Ways To Make Money
But what if you want to profit from other people's information?
The easiest way to make money illegally from personal information is to sell the person's identifying information on the dark web. From there, people will do things like try to get access to bank accounts, commit tax fraud in the name of someone else, create fake documents with the information, and more crimes.
If you're good with computers, you can try hacking into databases and get a huge amount of emails and passwords at once. Or if you're less tech-inclined, you can always do it the old-fashioned way: dumpster diving. People will throw out mail, such as credit card signup offers or bills, that have plenty of identifying information.
15. Burgle Homes
Breaking and entering houses to steal stuff is another way to make money illegally.
Here are some interesting statistics on burglary. Despite the common notion, burglaries are more common during the day when the occupants are running errands or at work. There are roughly 2.5 million burglaries a year and only 13% of them are solved.
Interestingly enough, only 12% of the people caught for burglary attempts said that they planned it in advance. Most of them said it was an impulse decision. Who would have thought?
How much can you make? Hard to say since each house will have different items in it but it's probably not much admittedly. But here's one thing that can be said for sure: there's a plenty of methods to make 300 dollars fast legally.
Alternatives to Making Money Fast Illegally
Again, we are not condoning any of these illegal money-making methods. There are plenty of ways to make money legally.
If you really need a large sum of money quickly, your best bet is to use a credit card or take out a personal loan to cover the expenses.
Here are some ways to make some extra money legally:
- Do online surveys: Sites like SurveyJunkie and Swagbucks will pay you to take online surveys. It's not going to make you rich, but it will pad your wallet and allow you some extra spending money. Check out our article on the best paid survey sites.
- Cut out subscriptions you don't use anymore: The easiest way to make money is to spend less. Subscriptions are taking over the business world. The problem is that many times we forget to cancel those subscriptions when we stop using them. Trim is a free tool that will automatically find all the subscriptions you pay for and let you unsubscribe from them with one click to save you money.
If you need more ideas on how to make money quickly, check out this post.
Why Would Someone Want to Make Money Illegally?
After reading this list, you're probably wondering why anyone would want to make money illegally given the risk of jail time.
How Can I Make Real Money Fast
Well, for some people, it's all they know. Their friends are criminals, their family members engage in criminal activities, and their communities are riddled with crime.
With others, it's a crime of desperation. Their situation has gotten so out of control, that they believe their only option is to commit a crime to make ends meet.
Make Real Money Fast Online
Even other people do it for the thrill. Breaking the law and making money illegally is a dopamine rush that they're addicted to. Just like sky-diving adrenaline junkies, for them, the risk is worth the reward.
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Wyzant connects you with students looking for one-on-one instruction. Find ones that fit your location and schedule, set your rate, and get paid hassle-free with direct deposit.
Shopify: Selling stuff is a great way to make extra money, whether you sell things you make or re-sell things you buy.
If you want to build an online store, Shopify makes it easy. They have ready-made templates, so you don't have to spend time designing your store.
We literally sell everything we don't need and sometimes items we got for deals or even free. Shopify is also the favorite platform for drop shippers.
What is dropshipping? It's creating the process of creating an online store (automated) and signing up with a product distributor that will mail products directly to your customers.
Since the products you sell ship directly to your customers, you don't need to hold inventory or mail anything. All you need to do is find cool products and market your website. Some are saying it's the ultimate online business.
Become the Entrepreneur of Your Block
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Debt Forgiveness: Did you know that credit card companies will forgive some of your debt if you're in trouble? Imagine reducing a $10,000 bill to $4,000 just by calling them and asking.
Not only is this a real thing, but billions of dollars get forgiven every year.
If you aren't comfortable negotiating forgiveness than you can bring on a company like National Debt Relief to negotiate on your behalf.
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Reduce monthly debt payments: Not all of us are in such a dire situation that we can have our debt forgiven. However, you can cut your payments by up to 80% by refinancing.
Most credit cards have interest rates above 25%, and Credible's refinance loans are as low as 4%. It won't change the amount of your debt, but it can reduce your monthly payment significantly.
Earnest (refinance your student loans): Same idea as above but on your student loans. There is $1.4 trillion in student loan debt outstanding.
When you have student loan debt, it can make it hard to get ahead, invest, or buy a home.
If this sounds familiar, refinancing the debt can not only help you pay it off more quickly, but it can save you money on interest too.
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Want to get your money under control?This is our guide to budgeting simply and effectively. We walk you through exactly how to use Mint, what your budget should be, and how to monitor your spending automatically.
Investments
Do you know the best way to make money? You don't? Have you never listened to a single episode or read a single article we've done?! It's growing money while you sleep – investing. Here's how.
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There is so much competition between banks that some offer cash bonuses when you open a new account as a way to attract new customers – and for you to save money.
There are usually some stipulations; you use direct deposit or pay a certain number of bills online; the account must be open for a minimum length of time or keep a minimum balance.
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You know how we feel about rental property. What could be better than having someone pay your mortgage and pay you? It's intimidating to become a landlord, though.
You don't know how to tell a good property from a bad one; you don't know how to fix a sink, you don't know how to screen tenants.
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We wrote a free in-depth guide for you that cuts through the bullshit. Specifically, we dive into how you can make money online with things like selling digital products and affiliate marketing (including affiliate programs to join).
Learn How to Start a Blog That Earns over $400k a year
Blogging is a lucrative side hustle and a great way to make extra cash. It won't be good money right away, but with a little part-time elbow grease, it can make up a substantial income stream.
Ride and Home Share Hustles
The hourly pay after expenses varies from city to city, but you can expect to make around $10 an hour with this side hustle. In larger cities, it will often be much more and in smaller towns, sometimes a little less.
The appeal of rideshare apps like Uber and Lyft is that you can set your schedule, and there is no commitment.
You can work your regular job and make your $100 in just a few hours on a weekend or some evenings.
Airbnb: If you live in a desirable place, a big city, a charming hamlet, the chances are that someone would like to stay in your home for a few days. And they'll pay you!
Right now, a small studio near the United Nations in NYC, so, far, far from the subway, is renting for $175 a night. If you can crash on a friend's couch for just one night, there's your $100 and then some.
Or, if you've got a spare room, rent that out.
The number of ways to earn extra money in your free time has never been greater!
Admit it, after watching a good robbery movie (Ocean's 11 anyone?), there's a split second where you fantasize about pulling off something similar and walking away with millions.
As a society, we are fascinated with quick ways to make a lot of money. The riskier, the better. The entire 'money heist' genre is a manifestation of that fascination. But, the reality of making money fast illegally is not as glamorous as portrayed in the movies.
Disclaimer:DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS AT HOME PEOPLE. This entire article is for entertainment purposes only. In no way do we condone any of these activities. If you're really in a situation where you are thinking of making money illegally, please seek legal help.
If you really need money quickly and legally, check out how to make $500 dollars fast. Also we have a guide with different options for those who really need money urgently.
For the sake of this article, let's pretend that someone is holding a gun to your head: 'You have one week to come up with $50,000 or I'll be back *evil laugh*'
And for the sake of the article let's pretend you don't do the smart thing and go to the authorities or flee to another country…
You now have one week to make $50,000. Did I mention you're also broke, have $0 in your bank account, no credit line, or anything of value to sell.
How would you do it?
Here are 15 different ways to make money fast illegally.
Contents
- 1 15 Terrible and Illegal Ways on How Make Money Quick Illegally
15 Terrible and Illegal Ways on How Make Money Quick Illegally
1. Sell Pirated or Counterfeit Goods (Copyright Infringement)
Did you know that counterfeit goods account for nearly 10% of global trade – around $500 billion dollars every year?
With such a big pie, it wouldn't be hard to cut yourself a little slice. When we think of selling counterfeit goods, we picture someone selling Louis Vuitton handbags on the street corner for $20. But, just like everything else, the majority of the counterfeit market has moved online. Even Amazon isn't safe from counterfeit goods being sold on their marketplace.
If you were wanting to make money fast illegally, finding physical counterfeit goods to sell might not be easy. An easier way to profit from copyright infringement would be to resell digital products.
You're probably getting flashbacks of the 'You wouldn't steal a car' commercials:
But selling pirated goods could be a lucrative business. These two brothers made over $50,000 selling downloads to pirated movies. Of course, they eventually got caught.
Pirated movies aren't the only things that sell. Nearly every digital good can be downloaded and resold illegally. Anything from mobile apps, online courses, ebooks, to entire websites.
2. Rob a Bank
Ah, what a classic. Get yourself a partner and you could be the next Bonnie and Clyde.
But before you tell the bank teller to give you all their money, there are a few things you should know. Bank robbery is not a lucrative way to make money illegally. In fact, according to the FBI, the average bank robber made only $7,500 for every bank robbery in 2010.
Depending on what state you live in, the punishment for getting caught robbing a bank can be anywhere from a mandatory 3 years to life in prison. I can't say that robbing a bank is a great way to make money…
3. Scam Unsuspecting Victims
Scammers are on a rise. You've probably noticed an increase of robocalls to your phone in the last few years. Or scam emails hitting your inbox promising you millions of dollars from an unknown wealthy relative that recently passed.
These scammers search for gullible victims, usually the elderly, and take as much easy money as they can.
Here are a few ways you can make money illegally as a scammer:
- Sell fake tickets on Ebay or Craigslist. Pretend you have tickets to some desirable sporting event or concert. Of course, you don't have them, but they don't know that. You can always grab a picture of real tickets to the event online somewhere if they want proof. After you get paid, send them the fake tickets or don't send them anything at all. Use Venmo to get paid as a friend so they can't charge it back.
- Phone scams that prey on emotions. This is a pretty common scam that works surprisingly well. The premise is that with the help of social media, you find some kids that are traveling abroad and call a distant relative of theirs posing as one of the kids. On the phone, you tell the relative that you're traveling abroad and ran into some trouble (in the hospital, in jail, etc) and need some money wired. You'll pay them back as soon you're back in the country of course. The key to this is finding a relative that can't recognize the kid's voice and is gullible enough to wire money to some stranger without checking with the parents of the kid first. There are many variations of this scam floating about. It keeps happening because, well, it works.
- Fake check scams. This is another pretty common scam that usually involves Craigslist. Tell someone that you want to buy their car or a big ticket item from craigslist. Next, tell them you're in a foreign country (on vacation, or whatever) so it's hard to send the money directly. But luckily, you have an acquaintance that owes you money living in the states. Tell them that you'll have your friend send them a check for the money they owe you and they should cash the check but wire you the extra money left over. It can take a few days for the bank to realize that the check is fake and if they wire you the money before that, then there's not much they can do. There are many variations of this going around too.
Need some inspiration? Check out fraud.org for a large list of illegal money-making scams people are executing on.
4. Prostitution
Touted as the oldest profession, prostitution is still a viable way to make money illegally – unless you live in Nevada, then it's legal.
Because of the underground and illegal nature of the business, lots of the statistics around prostitution are just good guesses. For example, it's estimated that there are 1-2 million prostitutes working in the United States but no one really knows.
How much money can you make as a prostitute?
That number depends on lots of factors – mostly marketing. How desirable your 'services' are has a huge impact on how much you can charge. Anywhere from $40 – $5,000 is reasonable.
But remember, if you record the act, it's no longer illegal… 'art' is a beautiful thing.
5. Sell Drugs
Selling drugs is one of the most common ways to make quick money illegally.
Of course, it's also a risky business. The more you make, the riskier it gets. You'll not only attract the attention of law enforcement, but you might get heat from other local drug dealers or gangs. This is probably the most dangerous way as you not only risk jail, but also getting killed.
How much money can you make? Again, depends on how high up the food chain you are. Most street-level dealers barely break even if you consider the number of drugs they do themselves. Mid-level dealers can make more, upwards of a few grand a month. Or, you can become like the 'King of Cocaine' himself. It's estimated that Pablo Escobar had a personal income of close to $21.9 billion dollars a year…
6. Smuggle Drugs
Continuing on with the drug-related money-making activities, drug smugglers pop up in the news nearly on a weekly basis.
For good reason too, smuggling drugs from one location to another – usually state to state or country to country – is a profitable business.
The more drugs you smuggle at once, the more profitable the trip. But that also increases the risk of you getting caught and the severity of the punishment. The easiest way to get started smuggling drugs is to travel somewhere where the drug is legal, for example, you could drive to Colorado or California to buy some legal marijuana. Then smuggle the marijuana to other states and sell it for a profit. Of course, this isn't risk-free. If you're caught smuggling drugs into Singapore you'll get killed as they have a death sentence.
7. Hold a Company Hostage (Ransomware)
Ransomware is a newer way to make money illegally.
The concept is to somehow get someone at a company to inadvertently install your ransomware. This virus will lock down all the files on the company's network until you tell it to unlock the files. You now have the power to extort money from the company – especially if the company relies on the files your ransomware locked. Usually, you demand the ransom to be paid in bitcoin, so to make it less traceable.
The hardest parts of this scheme is getting your ransomware on the company's computer and getting away with the ransom. You'd be surprised by how many companies and organizations will actually pay the ransom – you'll have to get paid in a creative way such as bitcoin though to avoid detection!
Need inspiration? Here are a few good ransomware stories.
8. Commit Insurance Fraud
According to the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud, insurance fraud costs nearly $80 billion dollars a year in false claims.
We here about false insurance claims all the time – from phony tainted-food claims to faked deaths to burnt down buildings. People are getting more and more creative with their insurance fraud schemes.
One of the most common insurance frauds is to pretend that a piece of expensive jewelry was stolen and then filing a claim.
But insurance fraud covers everything from purposefully setting your bankrupt business on fire to poisoning your child for a life insurance payout.
Insurance companies are getting better at spotting fraud, however – even employing AI to analyze patterns of claims. Getting caught committing insurance fraud will result in a hefty fine or even jail time depending on the severity of the case.
9. Count Cards
Counting cards is an interesting way to make money.
It's technically not illegal to count cards (as long as you don't use any external devices to help you), but casinos actively work to ban players they think are card counting.
Why? Well because it decreases their profit. For typical blackjack games, the house (casino) has a 1% advantage. Which means they'll typically profit $1 for every $100 pot. If you're a great card counter, you can decrease the house advantage by around 2.5%. Meaning you'll profit around 1.5% on every pot.
If you're playing at a table where the average bet is $100 and you can play 50 hands per hour, that means you'll be profiting around $75 per hour. Not bad – especially if you don't get banned.
Here's a great video explaining card counting in depth:
Pay attention that actually you can earn 100 dollars fast and legally, so is it worth it? Maybe while you're in isolation or quarantine, but it's still lucrative despite the risks.
10. Credit Card Skimming
Has your credit or debit card ever incurred charges that you have no idea how they got there without ever losing your card?
Then you were a victim of credit card skimming.
How does it work?
Well, credit card skimming is a type of credit card theft that involves a small device that the thief would install on an ATM machine, vending machine, or really any type of device that allows credit or debit card transactions. If you use your card at one of these 'infected' devices, the device will capture all the data from your card's magnetic strip and send that data to the thief.
Probably the best way to execute this illegal way of making money is to get a job as a waiter or waitress. Once an unsuspecting victim wants to pay their bill, take their card and use the skimming device. You'll even get an extra tip from the customer most of the time!
11. Become a Pimp
If the idea of selling your body is not really your thing, how about becoming an agent for a sex worker?
A pimp's job can include advertising services, physical protection, and providing a location for the sex worker to engage with clients. You'll basically be running a prostitution business and taking a cut from your workers.
Of course, since being a sex worker is illegal in most of the United States, being a pimp is also illegal.
According to Time, pimps can pull in anywhere between $5,000 to $32,000 per week. These guys (or gals) employed an average of five sex workers at a time.
Being a pimp is more profitable than being a sex worker in most cases.
12. Grow Drugs For Profit
If you're not much of a salesman or just don't like selling drugs, you can always grow the drugs instead.
Of course, only a few drugs can be grown such as marijuana and psilocybin mushrooms.
How much money you can make growing these drugs is dependent on many factors such as how much you're growing, the state of the local drug market, and who you sell to.
Of course, growing marijuana is still illegal in most states, though more and more states are legalizing not only the consumption but also the cultivation of marijuana for personal use. This means that unless you certain permits from the state, you're not allowed to grow your own marijuana with the purpose to distribute and sell for profit.
If you have a green thumb but don't want to grow anything illegal, consider growing gourmet mushrooms for profit.
13. Embezzle Your Employer
If you hate your job and are strapped for cash, embezzling your employer is an option to make money fast illegally.
Typically, the easiest way to embezzle a company is to work in the billing department (go accountaints!). Having access to the books, you can pad the numbers and slowly funnel away money. How exactly to funnel the money to make it as discreet as possible will vary from company to company.
The key to not getting caught is to do it as slowly as possible. It's easier to hide a few hundred dollars than a few thousand dollars. Though, depending on the size of the company there's a good chance that that can go unnoticed as well.
White Collar Crime usually doesn't have that long of a jail sentence and involves no physical harm.
14. Steal and Sell People's Identity
Identity theft is so common that most people can name at least one person affected by identity theft.
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But what if you want to profit from other people's information?
The easiest way to make money illegally from personal information is to sell the person's identifying information on the dark web. From there, people will do things like try to get access to bank accounts, commit tax fraud in the name of someone else, create fake documents with the information, and more crimes.
If you're good with computers, you can try hacking into databases and get a huge amount of emails and passwords at once. Or if you're less tech-inclined, you can always do it the old-fashioned way: dumpster diving. People will throw out mail, such as credit card signup offers or bills, that have plenty of identifying information.
15. Burgle Homes
Breaking and entering houses to steal stuff is another way to make money illegally.
Here are some interesting statistics on burglary. Despite the common notion, burglaries are more common during the day when the occupants are running errands or at work. There are roughly 2.5 million burglaries a year and only 13% of them are solved.
Interestingly enough, only 12% of the people caught for burglary attempts said that they planned it in advance. Most of them said it was an impulse decision. Who would have thought?
How much can you make? Hard to say since each house will have different items in it but it's probably not much admittedly. But here's one thing that can be said for sure: there's a plenty of methods to make 300 dollars fast legally.
Alternatives to Making Money Fast Illegally
Again, we are not condoning any of these illegal money-making methods. There are plenty of ways to make money legally.
If you really need a large sum of money quickly, your best bet is to use a credit card or take out a personal loan to cover the expenses.
Here are some ways to make some extra money legally:
- Do online surveys: Sites like SurveyJunkie and Swagbucks will pay you to take online surveys. It's not going to make you rich, but it will pad your wallet and allow you some extra spending money. Check out our article on the best paid survey sites.
- Cut out subscriptions you don't use anymore: The easiest way to make money is to spend less. Subscriptions are taking over the business world. The problem is that many times we forget to cancel those subscriptions when we stop using them. Trim is a free tool that will automatically find all the subscriptions you pay for and let you unsubscribe from them with one click to save you money.
If you need more ideas on how to make money quickly, check out this post.
Why Would Someone Want to Make Money Illegally?
After reading this list, you're probably wondering why anyone would want to make money illegally given the risk of jail time.
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Well, for some people, it's all they know. Their friends are criminals, their family members engage in criminal activities, and their communities are riddled with crime.
With others, it's a crime of desperation. Their situation has gotten so out of control, that they believe their only option is to commit a crime to make ends meet.
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Even other people do it for the thrill. Breaking the law and making money illegally is a dopamine rush that they're addicted to. Just like sky-diving adrenaline junkies, for them, the risk is worth the reward.
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Whatever the reason is, it's not morally justifiable to break the law to make ends meet. There are plenty of ways to get by or make money legally.
Summary
As entertaining as this list was, making money illegally is not worth it. The risk is not worth the reward.
Don't get yourself in a situation in which any of these methods sounds reasonable. And if you do get yourself in a terrible money situation, just remember, there's always a legal way out.
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