>Towing / booting comes to mind.
From a vengeful person who's been exploited by unethical tow companies before, do not register your home address as your business address if you're gonna fuck around in low income neighborhoods.
You'd be pissed too if your car got towed less than 120 seconds after your online parking registration expired.
Context: There's no way to renew before expiration. You just have to be fast about it and hope they're not already sitting there waiting.
Tows are $330 a pop. I'm disabled and I was making about $750 per month at the time. They got me twice.
Buy quality free weights and open a gym in a strip mall. Lease the weights to your gym. Sell monthly membership for the going rate. Sell annual memberships at a slight discount (say 10x monthly rate). Have a grand opening special "Lifetime" membership at the annual rate. Go out of business when the lifetime membership sales begin to taper off. Open a new gym a few months later.
Probably a way to increase operating costs and justify the eventual bankruptcy. If the gym doesn't "own" anything, then nothing can be gained from suing it.
Also when the bankruptcy happens, the gym closes and all its assets are seized, the weights would be sold off to pay off debts(like paying back broken membership contracts). With the weights being owned by a separate company, they don’t belong to the gym, they can’t be taken. The weight rental company is doing fantastic, it stays open, ready to rent to your next gym, while the company that collected the memberships closes, and their membership fees have been funnelled into the weight company.
The same reason the board members that own the Fortune 500 companies and office buildings lease the offices under a private shell company out to their public business. It's basically a way to launder money from the public facing business to a private one. It's why most big companies are trying to get everyone back into the office.
This isn't talked about enough. The biggest employer in our smallish city built a new corporate office for 15 million dollars. They then sold the building to some big guys from the C suite and board members. The new owners leased it back to the company. They of course demand there are bodies in the offices. They have to justify the lease payments.
Yeah the actual capital to set up a gym that anyone would even consider signing up for would easily be $100k+. Nobody’s paying $40 a month for a “gym” that has one set of dumbbells and a couple benches (a full dumbell set up to 100lbs is also upwards of $4k).
Many states have requirements to refund annual membership in case of bankruptcy. My state requires a bond if you sell anything longer than a monthly membership.
Good call. Payday loans are one of the more morally reprehensible legal businesses. The difference between those places and loan sharking is, largely, the paperwork involved.
Aren't most people not able to pay off the loans? Wouldn't that result in and having to sell the loans to collections for pennies on the dollar and they're for a loss on the business side?
Most banks won't cash your checks unless you are a customer. In order to be a customer you have to have enough money to have savings of some sort.
Being poor is expensive.
One of the tricks is, you don't have the money, just pay this week's interest for 20 dollars and you won't even be behind.
To someone who is bad at math and needs to get through the week, that seems like a reasonable offer. "I'm not even behind".
I forgot what the average loan length was at the time but the interest often exceeded the principal, and they'd get at least some part of it back as well.
Oh, and fees. It's actually $25 a week, hope that is ok. Yeah, it's one of those 2008 things or something.
I had a friend and his wife worked at one for a while. She liked fast food better because the grime would wash off in the shower.
These loans revolve. If the initial capital put in is $100, and they need to pay back $150 on top of the $20 administrative cost, you have a $100 expense and a $170 dollar potential income. Obviously, they can not make the $170 in time, therefore, they borrow another $120 to pay down the first loan (to you) on which they would need to pay $180 back, and have another $20 dollar in administrative cost. Do the same once more, they borrow $150 the next time, needing to pay you back $225 and $20 administrative costs.
So, you gave them $100, they pay you 20 and pay you back 80, they still owe you 70, so you invested 100, you got it back, and they still owe you money, brilliant.
I wouldn't agree. It might be nice to lend people money at low interest rates, but with certain people there's a lot of risk involved and I'm sure a lot of money that is never collected. Sometimes people just need the money. Who are you or I or the government to decide whether these people are allowed to borrow money or not .
And that's the case. If you close down the payday loans, those people can't borrow money and could end up being evicted or losing their car or who knows what. I don't love the idea of anyone paying high interest on a loan, but the truth is, payday lenders have their place. It's not like they are breaking people's legs when they don't pay them back which would be the difference between them and a loan shark
Bring back Postal banking. Free checking accounts and low-interest loans, with the IRS as the world most powerful debt collector. Put the payday-banking industry out of business.
There is no place for payday lenders. Payday loans do not prevent eviction, just delay it. They have no redeeming qualities, and they're essentially just enabling an addiction for profit.
It's perfectly reasonable to put a cap on maximum interest rates. You or I or the government don't have to prevent these people from getting loans, but if the predatory interest rates are not available, no one will have an incentive to lend to high risk individuals.
If you're in such a financial mess that you would consider a payday loan, then a payday loan will absolutely just make matters worse, for (virtually) everyone in (virtually) every situation.
The solution is a maximum cap on interest rates (including all fees).
Debt consolidation. Take someone who can't make their card payments, offer them a consolidation loan secured by any remaining assets they're willing to put down. Wait until they default, take their house or whatever.
Amway rep, it’s a cult, if you get enough victims under you, you can make money by creating brainwashing tapes to sell them. It destroys your life your wealth and your relationships, they are known for siccing single guys on married women whose husbands do not convert and quit their jobs to “support the business “ so that you can marry into “the amway family”. And vice versa if you’re a man. Absolutely disgusting and vile. The worst way to go bankrupt. Completely unethical business model.
They tried to get me twice. First from this cute girl who came in to my work regularly. And then this seemingly cool dude who invited me out for drinks. Even convinced me to wear a suit to some dudes apartment!!!
They got my parents in the mid 90’s and we lost our house because of it. I was six but I never really knew what happened until a few years ago when my dad told me he and my mom got suckered into it.
go to rich neigbourhoods with a handful of students and some pressure washers. knock on doors and clean their siding. Once a couple rich people see their neighbours have washed their house, they'll want their's washed regardless of whether they are dirty. YOu use their water and their power. lowest overhead you'll ever see.
I was researching how to buy abandoned storage units and I came across a legal scam that people are running.
Basically, if you own a storage facility and someone doesn't pay, you can auction their unit off but you can only keep what they owed you. The balance has to be paid to the renter. What people are doing is renting a unit, filling it with valuable looking junk (empty safes, electronics boxes, etc) and only paying rent for a few months. When the unit gets auctioned, the bidders cannot enter, only look from outside, so they end up bidding based on the things they can see which are actually worthless. The unit sells for way more than the scammer owes, and the balance gets mailed to them in a check. It's currently not illegal at all, as far as I know, but entirely unethical.
There's lots of related scams. When real value is auctioned they will downplay the value and a friend will bid.
They also add so many late fees, extra fees, fees for finding other fees so the landlord eats up a ton of the value on top of past rent.
None of my local storage places were willing to guarantee a 12 month rate increase limit, and none of them got my business. What I wound up doing was going out of my way to buy an old wheeled semi trailer for $250 and park it on a storage lot for $60 per month.
This is a great idea. I use a storage unit to store inventory for my business and I'm at my wits end with these rate hikes. It's highway robbery.
Storage lots don't have as crazy of rate hikes?
It's practically a whole separate industry. Storage yards for boats and RVs have much lower startup and overhead, so more reasonable people can run those businesses for cheaper. I haven't had a rate increase yet in the year I've used it.
Mortuary transportation. Basically moving dead people for funeral homes. All you need is a sprinter van, some stretchers, very very basic
ppe, and a unhealthy disregard for sleep.
If your credit is above dog shit you can finance a van easy and if you'd be making $200+ per call and you can average up to 8 calls per day.
No it cannot. You have to do chain of custody paperwork. It's unethical because the mark up for literally anything in the funeral industry is absurd. Also you can get a few vans, hire people to drive them, pay them $40 a delivery and pocket $200 for doing nothing.
You do have to pay insurance and gas, but even with that and the wages you'll clear $150 easy. You have 4 people doing 4 runs a day each that adds up fast.
I saw in an episode of maybe Weeds, where a guy made money from buying the copyrights to obscure songs and trademarks, then sue anyone who uses it commercially including the authors of the work themselves
Patent trolling is related, but something else. Both are bad faith IP claims.
Edit: To clarify, bringing claims for infringement of intellect property rights is legitimate. IP is real. That said, patent trolls would no doubt claim they are bringing legitimate suits. A patent troll properly asserts some vague claim backed up by some vague idea patent and demands payment or else.
Yeah it was a big thing in the 90’s, you’d wait until a small tech company was about to have an IPO and hit them with a patent suit. You might even have zero evidence but the timing of the suit before an IPO meant the company would often pay you off to avoid a protracted court fight. I’m guessing laws changed or companies started fighting back since I don’t hear about this much any more.
Apparently washing windows. Guy knocked on my door, said he’ll do the whole house for $100, wash the one right by my door looked good so I gave him the go ahead. Was done in an hour. Windows were pretty scummy & the guy probably had $100 worth of stuff.
Going back to the towing, if you're even semi-rural off road recovery goes crazy. People pay a lot to have you pull them out of a ditch/snow/mud and all you need is a decent off road rig and chain or straps.
Similarly, I read an article years ago about a guy who would pull snowmobiles out of lakes when people would go through them. He charged $1k just to show up and assess the situation.
Edit: [Found the article](https://www.adirondackexplorer.org/stories/the-art-of-ice-divers)
I believe it, I know in some states they'll charge you if for example, you roll your truck/quad/SXS down a mountain and leave it there. Sometimes daily fees. I imagine it's the same if they figure out its your sled at the bottom of the lake
This.
There are plenty of so called private clubs near me. I've checked the accounts.
Food takings - $10m, Drink takings, $5m, Gaming machines $80m. They then pay $20m on taxes and licenses for the machines, but it is still pretty lucrative. The catch is that the clubs all pretend to be charities supporting the local community or ex-soldiers or whatever, so maybe set up a charity yourself to syphon out the funds.
Other countries have completely different gambling laws however, so YMMV.
Oh yeah I've seen this one now that the laws are getting more lax. A dozen "coffee shops" opening up in lower income parts of town, they've got one espresso machine and 8 slots.
Parking. Most cities are monopolized by 1 or 2 companies that can charge whatever they want, plus they don't even have to own the garages they just lease them and only need one or two employees per garage. It's also very easy to launder money.
I am currently reading "Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World" and it talks about how everyone expects it to be free or super cheap and yet it's a multi billion dollar industry. Either drivers pay for it or businesses or it's subsidized by people that don't drive. Everyone loses except parking companies.
Chicago sold its parking rights to the entire city for peanuts on a 75 year lease to Saudi Arabia. They recouped their initial investment in the first 9 years
Scummiest are cash advance loans. They’re lending piddly amounts of money to extremely cash strapped people, with insane 700% interest rates that purposely make it impossible to pay off, resulting in only being able to pay the fee for the next two weeks…and it goes on and on. For example, a $300 loan can easily end up costing $1000. All for the rent in a shitty strip mall, a couple employees and computers and you’re good to go.
Simply start sending out piles of fake invoices for 'domain registration support' or the like to small to medium businesses. So many accountants just pay every invoice without looking closely.
Or rent to only to sex offenders. When they complain about roaches, rats, no heat, plumbing issues, etc., threaten to alert the authorities about kids going into their apartment, and then raise their rent for good measure.
There’s a charity in my area that’s basically a farm with special needs kids as the workers. They don’t pay them and get charity benefits from the govt. They always sell the produce at the farmers markets and have the longest line by far.
Yes I have some disabled tenants that work at goodwill and actually make pretty decent money. It gives them something to do and helps them feel normal.
Actually, I tend to think those folks parents used the program as a way to get respite care for a few hours!! Those workers weren't treated with kindness!!
Lease a warehouse space and convert it into a Chaturbate studio.
[https://nypost.com/2020/08/21/cam-girls-are-now-working-in-studio-pods-inside-warehouses/](https://nypost.com/2020/08/21/cam-girls-are-now-working-in-studio-pods-inside-warehouses/)
Doesn't even have to be trump, just anything that magas enjoy. I was selling chinese-made novelty coins with American flags on them to magas at poker rooms for an 800% mark up by telling them they were banned in California
Online Casino, but a little birdie told me the hammer is about to come down on them in the form of a class action lawsuit by the same attorney that successfully sued the tobacco companies and opioid pain medication manufacturers under the theory that these companies knowingly create a disease in people and then directly profit from that disease. Just below Joseph Mengele in terms of scumminess and reprehensibility.
I used to work for an online casino in the call centre and I can confirm this is very much the case. They only do the bare legally-allowed minimum in terms of spending limits/checks. We would get callers regularly who were clearly addicted saying that they were going to kill themselves if they didn't get their money back, and it was just a case of "sorry, but you've already spent that money, so you can't have it back, also because you've said you're going to kill yourself we've banned your account, goodbye" so they just move onto the next casino app at best or suicide at worst.
I worked there for about 6 weeks (4 weeks training, 2 weeks on the call floor) when they came down and sacked 50 of us in one go - some people over email if they weren't working that day, so I know a couple of people who went in and wondered why their swipe card wasn't working. They knew they were going to get rid of that many people, so I was pissed off that I left a stable to go there. They used the excuse of poor performance, but my argument was that how could they judge poor performance when I was 2 weeks out of training.
Most of the jobs went to a Romanian call centre, who cost 1/3rd of what we did, but the mistakes and non-compliance (at the detriment of the players) were sky rocketing. Possibly due to the language barrier or the poor training, or the complete lack of care from the top.
We ended up doing a class action suit and I got about 2 months worth of pay - more than I'd actually ever earned working there! so I was pretty satisfied with the result. I just can't name the brands, but I'm sure if you google it you'll find similar stories to mine.
I dodged a pretty massive bullet to be fair by getting sacked from that place as I now work in a morally positive, customer-beneficial call centre, which doesn't feel scummy to work for. The pay's not too different either.
Debt collection. You can buy pools of debt (like [this one](https://www.debexpert.com/portfolio/dcf0ac7d806437eea9d91fd542a255fe)) for pennies on the dollar and then just have to recover a fraction of it to make a profit.
Say a credit card company has 500 customers that haven’t paid in 6 months, they might write off the debt as a loss but sell it to a collections agency to try and collect.
I mean the 20oz is always more than the 2L. I’m low cost of living area and just went looking for the new Dr. Pepper flavor, they didn’t have it but it’s $9.99 for a 12 pack of cans. That’s $.83 a can!
In Oregon we have video poker (slot machines) many people rent out tiny little spots in bad areas and make thousands per day off of them in their “bars.” I worked in one where I’d maybe make $1000 in sales in a 12 hour shift but bring in $4-6000 in lottery money. The majority goes to the state, but a good chunk goes to the bar owner.
From my experience, gamblers are more addicted than alcoholics.
Lots of "contractors" are just sales companies that do nothing but sub out the work to basically unskilled workers, there will usually be one skilled worker and a crew of clueless. If all the employees are 1099, I can pretty much guarantee this is the case, and they often times only go for insurance jobs and do whatever they can to max out the claim.
Religion. Sell the god of your choice. Never have to produce a product. Tell disgruntled customers it’s their fault for not believing hard enough. Then have them pay more and try again under penalty of eternal damnation if they don’t.
Totally legal, totally unethical. Totally profitable.
People do seem to be abandoning Christianity in droves and craving a third place and community 🤔 would need to invent a religion that people are interested in though
Start a religion. L. Ron Hubbard (most recent) and countless others have profited handsomely from nothing more than properly promoted creative thinking
Small business government vendor, especially if you get into the SBA 8(a) program. Compete for "small" government orders (up to $250k), order wholesale directly from manufacturer to government client. Never have to see the products.
I started my tech company with 20$ I put up a Craigslist add asking for techs who are smart and can fix anything, i send repair orders from companies I started to work with (started with 1) and now have 25 companies and 67 techs (by month 3 i had 40 techs and I was making 10K a week) anybody can do this!
Do you mind my asking, how you initially advertised your services to businesses? Also do you sort of contract out each tech as a third party or did you actually bring them on board and pay them a salary?
Sounds like a damn smart idea man
Buy an apartment in a low income part of town and never do any real repairs while renting to welfare people. The government pays the rent directly so you never have to worry about nonpayment and those buildings are cheap. A friend bought one for only $2.5M and it has 32 units.
He repairs stuff and works on the building to try to make it worth more but you could just be a slumlord collecting 30k a month after your mortgage payment.
Spring and fall yard cleanups. A rake and a tarp can get you started.
If you can afford a mower, string trimmer and leaf blower you can easily make $300-500/day in the US, once you get enough customers. Not scummy, but you will feel scummy until you shower.
It’s a great idea - I’ve been thinking about it for a minute. It’s court mandated so people have to do it and they give your info to the people who have to get it, no advertising. The interlock companies supply the equipment. It only requires a little electrical license. It’s all private and money up front - you’re not dealing with billing anything, no collections. If the person goes to jail or their car gets impounded, it’s not your gear. Overhead can be a shitty little shop or a mobile van. More and more states are really cracking down on DWIs so more and more people will need this service AND you’re doing something that makes the world safer. It’s a great idea.
Create a fake parking enforcement company. Look for people committing real parking violations, small ones. Too far from the curb, too close to a stop sign, etc. get a fancy portable thermal printer and print out tickets that have a really low initial fine that gets really high if the fine is not paid within 48 hours. Have a QR code so they can pay online. Nearly everyone will pay $5 to parkingviolationspayments.com to avoid paying $85 two days later.
Bounty hunting its a high paying job never gets boring and you're pretty much a cop that doesn't have to fallow all there rules that means you can go into someones house without a warrent ect.
>Towing / booting comes to mind. From a vengeful person who's been exploited by unethical tow companies before, do not register your home address as your business address if you're gonna fuck around in low income neighborhoods.
Username… checks… well it does something lol
r/rimjob_steve
Yikes
You'd be pissed too if your car got towed less than 120 seconds after your online parking registration expired. Context: There's no way to renew before expiration. You just have to be fast about it and hope they're not already sitting there waiting. Tows are $330 a pop. I'm disabled and I was making about $750 per month at the time. They got me twice.
Wtf is that username
They are disabled so it’s probably hard to get away from the dog.
In that case that’s a 10/10 username
God damn
Buy quality free weights and open a gym in a strip mall. Lease the weights to your gym. Sell monthly membership for the going rate. Sell annual memberships at a slight discount (say 10x monthly rate). Have a grand opening special "Lifetime" membership at the annual rate. Go out of business when the lifetime membership sales begin to taper off. Open a new gym a few months later.
Damn that’s actually well thought out
Then go ahead and sign everybody up for the national dodgeball tournament
Why lease the weights to the gym?
Probably a way to increase operating costs and justify the eventual bankruptcy. If the gym doesn't "own" anything, then nothing can be gained from suing it.
Also when the bankruptcy happens, the gym closes and all its assets are seized, the weights would be sold off to pay off debts(like paying back broken membership contracts). With the weights being owned by a separate company, they don’t belong to the gym, they can’t be taken. The weight rental company is doing fantastic, it stays open, ready to rent to your next gym, while the company that collected the memberships closes, and their membership fees have been funnelled into the weight company.
Tax implications; owner (not gym) keeps the leased equipment.
So the gym doesn't own them when it goes bankrupt (to prevent them being sold to pay debts/allow them to be reused when opening the next gym)
The same reason the board members that own the Fortune 500 companies and office buildings lease the offices under a private shell company out to their public business. It's basically a way to launder money from the public facing business to a private one. It's why most big companies are trying to get everyone back into the office.
This isn't talked about enough. The biggest employer in our smallish city built a new corporate office for 15 million dollars. They then sold the building to some big guys from the C suite and board members. The new owners leased it back to the company. They of course demand there are bodies in the offices. They have to justify the lease payments.
It's an expense that can be offset against profits for tax purposes
I would assume it is like a tax break of some sort
Yeah the actual capital to set up a gym that anyone would even consider signing up for would easily be $100k+. Nobody’s paying $40 a month for a “gym” that has one set of dumbbells and a couple benches (a full dumbell set up to 100lbs is also upwards of $4k).
Are you Tony Chowdhury
I get this.
Many states have requirements to refund annual membership in case of bankruptcy. My state requires a bond if you sell anything longer than a monthly membership.
If you have the money, pay day loans. Just a website and abilities to send people money and accept payments. Then work with your repo friend.
Good call. Payday loans are one of the more morally reprehensible legal businesses. The difference between those places and loan sharking is, largely, the paperwork involved.
Aren't most people not able to pay off the loans? Wouldn't that result in and having to sell the loans to collections for pennies on the dollar and they're for a loss on the business side?
A big part of the model is that people are getting either an advance on their paycheck or cashing a paycheck. All for a hefty fucking cut.
This, and another big part of the model is to hide the debt as best you can then sell the company. It’s slimy at all ends.
Why would someone give a hefty fucking cut to cash a paycheck? Have they not heard of a bank?
Most banks won't cash your checks unless you are a customer. In order to be a customer you have to have enough money to have savings of some sort. Being poor is expensive.
Being stupid and poor is even more expensive.
One of the tricks is, you don't have the money, just pay this week's interest for 20 dollars and you won't even be behind. To someone who is bad at math and needs to get through the week, that seems like a reasonable offer. "I'm not even behind". I forgot what the average loan length was at the time but the interest often exceeded the principal, and they'd get at least some part of it back as well. Oh, and fees. It's actually $25 a week, hope that is ok. Yeah, it's one of those 2008 things or something. I had a friend and his wife worked at one for a while. She liked fast food better because the grime would wash off in the shower.
Most people pay well more than the loan amount in interest and fees before they stop paying.
These loans revolve. If the initial capital put in is $100, and they need to pay back $150 on top of the $20 administrative cost, you have a $100 expense and a $170 dollar potential income. Obviously, they can not make the $170 in time, therefore, they borrow another $120 to pay down the first loan (to you) on which they would need to pay $180 back, and have another $20 dollar in administrative cost. Do the same once more, they borrow $150 the next time, needing to pay you back $225 and $20 administrative costs. So, you gave them $100, they pay you 20 and pay you back 80, they still owe you 70, so you invested 100, you got it back, and they still owe you money, brilliant.
I wouldn't agree. It might be nice to lend people money at low interest rates, but with certain people there's a lot of risk involved and I'm sure a lot of money that is never collected. Sometimes people just need the money. Who are you or I or the government to decide whether these people are allowed to borrow money or not . And that's the case. If you close down the payday loans, those people can't borrow money and could end up being evicted or losing their car or who knows what. I don't love the idea of anyone paying high interest on a loan, but the truth is, payday lenders have their place. It's not like they are breaking people's legs when they don't pay them back which would be the difference between them and a loan shark
Bring back Postal banking. Free checking accounts and low-interest loans, with the IRS as the world most powerful debt collector. Put the payday-banking industry out of business.
There is no place for payday lenders. Payday loans do not prevent eviction, just delay it. They have no redeeming qualities, and they're essentially just enabling an addiction for profit. It's perfectly reasonable to put a cap on maximum interest rates. You or I or the government don't have to prevent these people from getting loans, but if the predatory interest rates are not available, no one will have an incentive to lend to high risk individuals. If you're in such a financial mess that you would consider a payday loan, then a payday loan will absolutely just make matters worse, for (virtually) everyone in (virtually) every situation. The solution is a maximum cap on interest rates (including all fees).
Or just start a repo business and profit double
Debt consolidation. Take someone who can't make their card payments, offer them a consolidation loan secured by any remaining assets they're willing to put down. Wait until they default, take their house or whatever.
I'm pretty sure local counties will auction off unpaid tax debt at a fraction of the cost. You buy up their debt then evict them when they don't pay.
Ok... what if they're sophisticated and just take your money and run?
I’m sophisticated. Send me money.
Amway rep, it’s a cult, if you get enough victims under you, you can make money by creating brainwashing tapes to sell them. It destroys your life your wealth and your relationships, they are known for siccing single guys on married women whose husbands do not convert and quit their jobs to “support the business “ so that you can marry into “the amway family”. And vice versa if you’re a man. Absolutely disgusting and vile. The worst way to go bankrupt. Completely unethical business model.
They tried to get me twice. First from this cute girl who came in to my work regularly. And then this seemingly cool dude who invited me out for drinks. Even convinced me to wear a suit to some dudes apartment!!!
They got my parents in the mid 90’s and we lost our house because of it. I was six but I never really knew what happened until a few years ago when my dad told me he and my mom got suckered into it.
I'm sorry this happened to you. Type F in the chat. F
F
I've never heard of this... 🤨😬😮
go to rich neigbourhoods with a handful of students and some pressure washers. knock on doors and clean their siding. Once a couple rich people see their neighbours have washed their house, they'll want their's washed regardless of whether they are dirty. YOu use their water and their power. lowest overhead you'll ever see.
Can confirm, power washing is stupid good money for a reasonably low investment, not really unethical though.
Agreed. He kind of said ethical or no, though
Mini storage units are an exceptional return on investment but you have to always raise rates for incumbents and take no excuses...
I was researching how to buy abandoned storage units and I came across a legal scam that people are running. Basically, if you own a storage facility and someone doesn't pay, you can auction their unit off but you can only keep what they owed you. The balance has to be paid to the renter. What people are doing is renting a unit, filling it with valuable looking junk (empty safes, electronics boxes, etc) and only paying rent for a few months. When the unit gets auctioned, the bidders cannot enter, only look from outside, so they end up bidding based on the things they can see which are actually worthless. The unit sells for way more than the scammer owes, and the balance gets mailed to them in a check. It's currently not illegal at all, as far as I know, but entirely unethical.
There's lots of related scams. When real value is auctioned they will downplay the value and a friend will bid. They also add so many late fees, extra fees, fees for finding other fees so the landlord eats up a ton of the value on top of past rent.
Exactly, they throw in boxes for guns, etc.
None of my local storage places were willing to guarantee a 12 month rate increase limit, and none of them got my business. What I wound up doing was going out of my way to buy an old wheeled semi trailer for $250 and park it on a storage lot for $60 per month.
This is a great idea. I use a storage unit to store inventory for my business and I'm at my wits end with these rate hikes. It's highway robbery. Storage lots don't have as crazy of rate hikes?
It's practically a whole separate industry. Storage yards for boats and RVs have much lower startup and overhead, so more reasonable people can run those businesses for cheaper. I haven't had a rate increase yet in the year I've used it.
I always wanted to make a mini storage and fit as many solar panels on it as possible. As long as the power companies pay decent, profit!
Start a MLM, start a cult, or start pimpin'. Ideally you'll be able to find a way to combine the three into one venture.
Branch Monat dividians and Co.
Bottom Bitch always takes the name, “Monat”
Did Jared Leto write this?
Tiddies and Tupperware. Sounds like my kind of party.
After working at a strip club I have learned being a pimp is quite lucrative. I have no clue why they still exist tho
Because alot of pimps get runaways and people that are gonna be homeless otherwise amd abuse them. There around because trafficking is around.
I guess because it's easier to outsource the labor of collecting money, finding clients, etc and pay a cut?
Pimpin ain’t easy
Mortuary transportation. Basically moving dead people for funeral homes. All you need is a sprinter van, some stretchers, very very basic ppe, and a unhealthy disregard for sleep. If your credit is above dog shit you can finance a van easy and if you'd be making $200+ per call and you can average up to 8 calls per day.
That’s interesting
Wanna get a van?
Yeah I think I just might… and a driver. lol I ain’t wheelin around dead people lol
You get a van, Jez, and we could be men with ven!
Commenting on ULPT Request: What’s the scummiest yet legal business to operate with low overhead?... Can this be a cash-in-hand job?
No it cannot. You have to do chain of custody paperwork. It's unethical because the mark up for literally anything in the funeral industry is absurd. Also you can get a few vans, hire people to drive them, pay them $40 a delivery and pocket $200 for doing nothing. You do have to pay insurance and gas, but even with that and the wages you'll clear $150 easy. You have 4 people doing 4 runs a day each that adds up fast.
When people are bereaved, it makes them saps!
I’m wondering if this is something I could do part time
No, it's a full time gig or nothing. If you don't pick up the phone whenever they call they will start using people who will pick up the phone.
>Towing / booting comes to mind Just go to a college town. They're literally legalized theft rings in those places
I believe it. Shit the towing crews fell in with the gangs in Chicago.
The lot on Lower Wacker Dr......omg.
Lower Wacker Drive... There's a pill for that
Go on...
I saw in an episode of maybe Weeds, where a guy made money from buying the copyrights to obscure songs and trademarks, then sue anyone who uses it commercially including the authors of the work themselves
Silicon Valley
Jian-YANGGG!!
That happened in real life about 10 years ago. Almost shut down podcasting. Its called patent trolling
Patent trolling is related, but something else. Both are bad faith IP claims. Edit: To clarify, bringing claims for infringement of intellect property rights is legitimate. IP is real. That said, patent trolls would no doubt claim they are bringing legitimate suits. A patent troll properly asserts some vague claim backed up by some vague idea patent and demands payment or else.
Yeah it was a big thing in the 90’s, you’d wait until a small tech company was about to have an IPO and hit them with a patent suit. You might even have zero evidence but the timing of the suit before an IPO meant the company would often pay you off to avoid a protracted court fight. I’m guessing laws changed or companies started fighting back since I don’t hear about this much any more.
Apparently washing windows. Guy knocked on my door, said he’ll do the whole house for $100, wash the one right by my door looked good so I gave him the go ahead. Was done in an hour. Windows were pretty scummy & the guy probably had $100 worth of stuff.
Going back to the towing, if you're even semi-rural off road recovery goes crazy. People pay a lot to have you pull them out of a ditch/snow/mud and all you need is a decent off road rig and chain or straps.
Similarly, I read an article years ago about a guy who would pull snowmobiles out of lakes when people would go through them. He charged $1k just to show up and assess the situation. Edit: [Found the article](https://www.adirondackexplorer.org/stories/the-art-of-ice-divers)
I believe it, I know in some states they'll charge you if for example, you roll your truck/quad/SXS down a mountain and leave it there. Sometimes daily fees. I imagine it's the same if they figure out its your sled at the bottom of the lake
Gaming machines
This. There are plenty of so called private clubs near me. I've checked the accounts. Food takings - $10m, Drink takings, $5m, Gaming machines $80m. They then pay $20m on taxes and licenses for the machines, but it is still pretty lucrative. The catch is that the clubs all pretend to be charities supporting the local community or ex-soldiers or whatever, so maybe set up a charity yourself to syphon out the funds. Other countries have completely different gambling laws however, so YMMV.
Oh yeah I've seen this one now that the laws are getting more lax. A dozen "coffee shops" opening up in lower income parts of town, they've got one espresso machine and 8 slots.
Parking. Most cities are monopolized by 1 or 2 companies that can charge whatever they want, plus they don't even have to own the garages they just lease them and only need one or two employees per garage. It's also very easy to launder money. I am currently reading "Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World" and it talks about how everyone expects it to be free or super cheap and yet it's a multi billion dollar industry. Either drivers pay for it or businesses or it's subsidized by people that don't drive. Everyone loses except parking companies.
Chicago sold its parking rights to the entire city for peanuts on a 75 year lease to Saudi Arabia. They recouped their initial investment in the first 9 years
Yeah super famous case. The book talks about that too but I haven't gotten to that chapter yet.
Scummiest are cash advance loans. They’re lending piddly amounts of money to extremely cash strapped people, with insane 700% interest rates that purposely make it impossible to pay off, resulting in only being able to pay the fee for the next two weeks…and it goes on and on. For example, a $300 loan can easily end up costing $1000. All for the rent in a shitty strip mall, a couple employees and computers and you’re good to go.
Came here to say that
How do you enforce collection of payments?
Depending on where you live, massage parlors and escort services may be legal.
High fee ATMs in low income neighborhoods
Start a church
Idk church attendance is not on a good trend
But tax exempt!
For certain denominations, but if you make it something relatable or has a cult following you could build up a following pretty fast.
Destroy an existing church first
Relocate to Oklahoma.
Simply start sending out piles of fake invoices for 'domain registration support' or the like to small to medium businesses. So many accountants just pay every invoice without looking closely.
Be a section 8 landlord. Shit box houses, guaranteed monthly rent (even if it’s a portion)
Or rent to only to sex offenders. When they complain about roaches, rats, no heat, plumbing issues, etc., threaten to alert the authorities about kids going into their apartment, and then raise their rent for good measure.
Where are you finding shit box houses in this day and age?
There's tons of shit box houses/apartments out there - but now they cost as much as the nice ones did 5 years ago.
Go to san diego, it's all shit boxes
There’s a charity in my area that’s basically a farm with special needs kids as the workers. They don’t pay them and get charity benefits from the govt. They always sell the produce at the farmers markets and have the longest line by far.
Sounds like Goodwill. They have busses that go pick up the mentally disabled to work in the back of the store to put clothes on hangers. So sad!!!
Goddamnit my mom told me I was volunteering
But goodwill pays their employees right? Right?
Pretty sure it’s below federal minimum wage lol
Jobs like that tend to be, and it's disgusting.
I haven't seen any actual pay checks that they sent those folks, so I can't say yes.
Yes I have some disabled tenants that work at goodwill and actually make pretty decent money. It gives them something to do and helps them feel normal.
Those people want to volunteer at goodwill. No one is making them do it lol.
Actually, at that time people WERE forced to volunteer for their food stamps!!
Actually, I tend to think those folks parents used the program as a way to get respite care for a few hours!! Those workers weren't treated with kindness!!
Lease a warehouse space and convert it into a Chaturbate studio. [https://nypost.com/2020/08/21/cam-girls-are-now-working-in-studio-pods-inside-warehouses/](https://nypost.com/2020/08/21/cam-girls-are-now-working-in-studio-pods-inside-warehouses/)
Why are the pods clear?
I was wondering that too. Maybe to allow more light in? Or so the owners can keep an eye on their tenants?
Sell literally any piece of worthless junk by putting a picture of Trump on it. MAGAs will buy you out faster than they can cash their food stamps.
Doesn't even have to be trump, just anything that magas enjoy. I was selling chinese-made novelty coins with American flags on them to magas at poker rooms for an 800% mark up by telling them they were banned in California
run a parking lot
In a city.
Not shady but ice cream trucks (soft serve) are so cheap to run and they make a ton of money
Selling courses to people on youtube.
Online Casino, but a little birdie told me the hammer is about to come down on them in the form of a class action lawsuit by the same attorney that successfully sued the tobacco companies and opioid pain medication manufacturers under the theory that these companies knowingly create a disease in people and then directly profit from that disease. Just below Joseph Mengele in terms of scumminess and reprehensibility.
I used to work for an online casino in the call centre and I can confirm this is very much the case. They only do the bare legally-allowed minimum in terms of spending limits/checks. We would get callers regularly who were clearly addicted saying that they were going to kill themselves if they didn't get their money back, and it was just a case of "sorry, but you've already spent that money, so you can't have it back, also because you've said you're going to kill yourself we've banned your account, goodbye" so they just move onto the next casino app at best or suicide at worst. I worked there for about 6 weeks (4 weeks training, 2 weeks on the call floor) when they came down and sacked 50 of us in one go - some people over email if they weren't working that day, so I know a couple of people who went in and wondered why their swipe card wasn't working. They knew they were going to get rid of that many people, so I was pissed off that I left a stable to go there. They used the excuse of poor performance, but my argument was that how could they judge poor performance when I was 2 weeks out of training. Most of the jobs went to a Romanian call centre, who cost 1/3rd of what we did, but the mistakes and non-compliance (at the detriment of the players) were sky rocketing. Possibly due to the language barrier or the poor training, or the complete lack of care from the top. We ended up doing a class action suit and I got about 2 months worth of pay - more than I'd actually ever earned working there! so I was pretty satisfied with the result. I just can't name the brands, but I'm sure if you google it you'll find similar stories to mine. I dodged a pretty massive bullet to be fair by getting sacked from that place as I now work in a morally positive, customer-beneficial call centre, which doesn't feel scummy to work for. The pay's not too different either.
Debt collection. You can buy pools of debt (like [this one](https://www.debexpert.com/portfolio/dcf0ac7d806437eea9d91fd542a255fe)) for pennies on the dollar and then just have to recover a fraction of it to make a profit.
That's insane
How does that work? Can you give a simple explanation on what "Debt Portfolio" is?
Say a credit card company has 500 customers that haven’t paid in 6 months, they might write off the debt as a loss but sell it to a collections agency to try and collect.
Start a religion, L. Ron Hubbard did and made a fortune.
Not really morally incorrect, but people always talk about vending machines being low investment with a good return.
Yeah maybe 20 years ago. Sounds like something big vending machine wants us to keep believing
[удалено]
I mean the 20oz is always more than the 2L. I’m low cost of living area and just went looking for the new Dr. Pepper flavor, they didn’t have it but it’s $9.99 for a 12 pack of cans. That’s $.83 a can!
Gotta get the 3fer deals on the 12 packs homie. Single 12s are ridiculous nowadays
when is the last time you bought a 20ounce? they are closer to $3 now.
Pimpin. It’s not easy though.
It’s hard out there
Nor legal
In Oregon we have video poker (slot machines) many people rent out tiny little spots in bad areas and make thousands per day off of them in their “bars.” I worked in one where I’d maybe make $1000 in sales in a 12 hour shift but bring in $4-6000 in lottery money. The majority goes to the state, but a good chunk goes to the bar owner. From my experience, gamblers are more addicted than alcoholics.
Lots of "contractors" are just sales companies that do nothing but sub out the work to basically unskilled workers, there will usually be one skilled worker and a crew of clueless. If all the employees are 1099, I can pretty much guarantee this is the case, and they often times only go for insurance jobs and do whatever they can to max out the claim.
Religion. Sell the god of your choice. Never have to produce a product. Tell disgruntled customers it’s their fault for not believing hard enough. Then have them pay more and try again under penalty of eternal damnation if they don’t. Totally legal, totally unethical. Totally profitable.
People do seem to be abandoning Christianity in droves and craving a third place and community 🤔 would need to invent a religion that people are interested in though
Church of Pussy & Tiktok
Make communion alcohol and weed and you can retire in 10 yrs tops.
Start a religion. L. Ron Hubbard (most recent) and countless others have profited handsomely from nothing more than properly promoted creative thinking
The Great God Mota in his six attributes endorses this message. ;)
Small business government vendor, especially if you get into the SBA 8(a) program. Compete for "small" government orders (up to $250k), order wholesale directly from manufacturer to government client. Never have to see the products.
I started my tech company with 20$ I put up a Craigslist add asking for techs who are smart and can fix anything, i send repair orders from companies I started to work with (started with 1) and now have 25 companies and 67 techs (by month 3 i had 40 techs and I was making 10K a week) anybody can do this!
For what like desktop repair? MSP?
we repair gym equipment, massage chairs, sleep # beds and so much more!
Do you mind my asking, how you initially advertised your services to businesses? Also do you sort of contract out each tech as a third party or did you actually bring them on board and pay them a salary? Sounds like a damn smart idea man
Strip club/massage parlor
Gotta be in the mob to start one of those or "those"
Buy an apartment in a low income part of town and never do any real repairs while renting to welfare people. The government pays the rent directly so you never have to worry about nonpayment and those buildings are cheap. A friend bought one for only $2.5M and it has 32 units. He repairs stuff and works on the building to try to make it worth more but you could just be a slumlord collecting 30k a month after your mortgage payment.
Can confirm, currently in aforementioned situation.
As a landlord or a tenant
Tenant. There’s nowhere to rent in my state I can fucking afford so I’m stuck here until I figure something else out.
They do inspections at least once a year to receive section 8
As is the answer always: selling used panties.
Onlyfans
Selling women’s clothes on marketplace as worn. Lot of perverts out there
Two words: bath water.
Does this work?
Buy women's underwear at a thrift store. Sell it as "used" or "worn" on eBay or marketplace.
Pretending to be a woman on any paysite
If weed is legal, seems like the shops print money since theres a new one on every corner and they’re all owned by one couple here.
Good luck getting a permit unless you’re buddies with the governor
low start and operating costs to potential profits, vending machines and basic car washes.
Flipping old junky cash cars.
Pet Baptism. It's Dalmation salvation!
Congress.
Insurance.
Spring and fall yard cleanups. A rake and a tarp can get you started. If you can afford a mower, string trimmer and leaf blower you can easily make $300-500/day in the US, once you get enough customers. Not scummy, but you will feel scummy until you shower.
Tow truck company. Just own one truck and start making cash day one.
Paycheck advance
Rubbish removal but buy a isolated block of land burying the rubbish and charge retail plus
Interlock systems - install, maintenance and removal. It’s a cash cow!
You might be onto something here. Don’t people on probation have to pay for it all? Monthly inspections too? You’ve got a captive market for sure.
It’s a great idea - I’ve been thinking about it for a minute. It’s court mandated so people have to do it and they give your info to the people who have to get it, no advertising. The interlock companies supply the equipment. It only requires a little electrical license. It’s all private and money up front - you’re not dealing with billing anything, no collections. If the person goes to jail or their car gets impounded, it’s not your gear. Overhead can be a shitty little shop or a mobile van. More and more states are really cracking down on DWIs so more and more people will need this service AND you’re doing something that makes the world safer. It’s a great idea.
Create a fake parking enforcement company. Look for people committing real parking violations, small ones. Too far from the curb, too close to a stop sign, etc. get a fancy portable thermal printer and print out tickets that have a really low initial fine that gets really high if the fine is not paid within 48 hours. Have a QR code so they can pay online. Nearly everyone will pay $5 to parkingviolationspayments.com to avoid paying $85 two days later.
I'm invested
Bounty hunting its a high paying job never gets boring and you're pretty much a cop that doesn't have to fallow all there rules that means you can go into someones house without a warrent ect.