High Yield Investment Programs or HYIP's are schemes where a person (the would-be investor) makes what is known as a "spend" (payment) of money in quantities ranging from less than $1 to $1000's in hopes of getting back a high return after a certain period of time. Most HYIP's that I have seen use the gold electronic currency business e-Gold as their payment processor of choice. The rate of return offered varies depending on the particular HYIP (I have seen sites offering rates as ridiculously high as 3000%) and when an e-Gold spend is made it cannot be reversed. This is in accordance with e-Gold's policy and motto which succinctly states: "Get paid, stay paid."

The following generic statement can be seen on the home pages of many HYIP's in reference to their program: "Our program is intended for people willing to achieve their financial freedom but unable to do so because they are not financial experts. xxxxx is a long term high yield private loan program backed up by Forex market trading and investing in various funds and activities. Profits from these investments are used to enhance our program and increase its stability for the long term."

In fact however, the High Yield Investment Programs are Ponzi schemes. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia says: "A Ponzi scheme (named after Charles Ponzi who became notorious after using the system) usually offers abnormally high short-term returns in order to entice new investors. The high returns that a Ponzi scheme advertises (and pays) require an ever-increasing flow of money from investors in order to keep the scheme going. The system is doomed to collapse because there are little or no underlying earnings from the money received by the promoter."

It follows that HYIP's are usually short-lived affairs where the so-called investor is often scammed out of his/her money. I myself made a total of 15 small spends in 15 different HYIP's recently just to see and I can report that I got paid by none. Zilch. Zero.

So why do these sites continue popping up all over the Internet and attracting "investors" when most people know most of them are scams? Well, there's always the powerful allure of the possibility of making money without lifting a finger. That will always attract people. Always.

But the fact remains that if you have some e-Gold currency laying around that you don't need, you can invest in High Yield Investment Programs and make some scam artists always on the prowl for sucker money (like mine) feel very satisfied. Very happy. For the long term.

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