Like me you’ve probably been tempted by get rich schemes or quick ways of making money online which involve sending money to a stranger or investing your money in an online business and receiving a quick Return On Investment (ROI). These schemes usually target people who are struggling to make ends meet and need some extra money, fast.
However Money Flipping advertised through Social media sites such as Instagram, Twitter or Facebook are SCAMS. In this post I will discuss how the scam works and some legit ways of making money online that involve putting in some extra time and effort.
What is Money Flipping?
Flipping is a term used primarily in the United States to describe purchasing a revenue-generating asset and quickly reselling (or “flipping”) it for profit – usually real estate and initial public offerings (IPOs) which involves the sale of stock. This is perfectly legal.
However Money Flipping online usually refers to a scam involving social media. You’ve probably heard of the Nigerian Prince scam right? It’s similar to that and is one of a variety called an advance-fee scam. It usually involves promising the victim a share of a larger sum of money, in return for you sending a smaller up-front payment, which the scammer requires in order to obtain the larger sum.
How you Flip Cash Online
You may have seen their ads where money flipping is advertised on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook and offers to help you double or triple your money or even turn hundreds of dollars into thousands. If that sounds too good to be true, that’s because it is.
Scammers claiming you can flip money online may suggest you make a payment through Western Union, Money gram, or Paypal. Alternatively, they may try to obtain your banking details by getting you to visit a website. They usually entice you into separating with your money by showing you images of pretty women holding wads of cash or flashy cars complete with lots of fake testimonials about how easy it is to make money, or they will show you a fake video of someone who benefited from the scheme and is counting the cash.
They will often claim to take advantage of quirks in the monetary system to leverage additional cash or claim to be able to hack Western Union, Green Dot or Money gram and double or triple your cash by manipulating the amount of money in their computer system. Don’t fall for it.
If you agree to go along with the scheme, they may ask to contact you via telephone or whatsapp. Once the scammer has your card details or you’ve made the payment, you get un-friended or blocked on the social media platform, and all communication is lost. Your money gone.
There’s a new variation on the flipping money scam. In the past, the scammers asked you to send the initial payment via prepaid debit card or wire transfers. However nowadays the victim isn’t asked to send money but to instead mail their physical debit card to the scammer as well as their PIN, so that a check can be deposited into their account. They are told that they will receive a percentage of the money made from the check to compensate for their trouble.
If you send them your debit card, you will often see a large deposit in your account. This will be followed by a large withdrawal. Unfortunately, the deposited check is a fake and you are left owing the bank money when the check comes back as a fraud.
The BBB is one of several consumer-protection agencies warning of the scam. Authorities in several other states also have posted warnings about flipping cash. The National Consumer League also warns about the scam on their website at fraud.org.
Tips to Avoid Online Scams
- Do a quick search of the service or scheme using a search engine and add the keyword scam to the end. For example, “Western Union Money Flip Scam”. You could also search their username and phone number. Chances are others have posted about the scam.
- Do not respond to anyone asking for your bank account information or pin or someone who wants you to send them your debit card through the post. Also don’t send money to strangers using Western Union or Money gram.
- Do not assume your friends are sharing or liking scam posts as their accounts may have been hacked.
- Check out the company’s website and make sure the content is up to date, that they have a business registration number, licensing information and an actual address.
- Don’t fall for easy or quick money-making schemes and remember that if it was that easy to make money online everyone would be doing it.
- If you feel that you have been a victim of a scam you should file a complaint with fraud.org
Legit ways of Flipping Money Online
Hopefully by now you realize that earning money online takes hard work and that there are no quick and easy ways of flipping money. Here are some ways of making money online that require some time and effort but will usually pay off in the end.
Domain Name Flipping
However you can still make money online by flipping website domain names. This can involve purchasing a website a sought-after domain name, holding on to it and selling it at a higher cost. To increase the value of the domain it can help to associate it with a website so that the domain has Doman Authority before reselling it. You can make a significant profit from doing this, but it takes time. A tip is to purchase short snappy domain names as these tend to sell for more. Also avoid domain names with hyphens as these are considered spammy.
Website Flipping
This is similar to Doman name Flipping except the emphasis is on the website traffic rather than the domain name itself. You want to choose run-down or low-quality websites that are already receiving some search engine traffic as this demonstrates that the website is not penalized by the search engines. You then want to increase the search engine traffic to the website and resell it for a profit.
Cryptocurrency
Another way of flipping cash is to invest in cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and others to make a profit. Investing in cryptocurrencies has resulted in one of the highest return on investments ever. Had you invested only $10 in June 2011, your current ROI would approximate over 60,000%. That’s over $6,000 in just a few years. Perhaps instead of buying that luxury watch or pair of shoes, why not invest that money in cryptocurrency instead.
My advice would be to not invest more money than you’re willing to lose and to diversify your portfolio across multiple assets such as stocks, commodities, bank deposits etc.
Selling Products Online
You can sell products online whether it’s through eBay, Etsy or Amazon for a quick profit. You can start by selling some of your own possessions whether they be clothing, jewellery or household goods, and then move onto buying and selling profitable items to ‘flip’ for profit. This is known as retail arbitrage and it is surprisingly lucrative. These are typically sold on Amazon or eBay. This can yield quick cash, depending on the prices and demand for your items. You also can promote your items on social media, to direct customers to your products online.
Two indispensable and powerful tools that allows you to search for sale and clearance deals near your zip code and sell them for profit are BrickSeek and Tactical Arbitrage.
Affiliate Marketing
If you have a significant social media following, or you own a website or blog you can sign up with companies to promote their services or products and earn commission based on the number of sales you make. Be sure to promote high quality products or services that will provide value to your customers.
A great affiliate to join is wealthy affiliate. It’s free to join and ideal for those getting started in affiliate marketing so you can become financially independent. If you’re looking for a 100% legit way to make money, it provides the best training online along with the most helpful and friendly community online, with all the support to get you building your online business. They will show you everything you need to know to become a successful affiliate. They will even help you create your own website, provide up-to-date step-by-step training, keyword research, and you can join their online community and get professional help.
I’m with Wealthy Affiliate myself and I believe it’s the best program out there, hands-down. It actually shows you how to do affiliate marketing the correct way so you can create profit straight from home.
Kyle and Carson are the owners and have years and years helping newbies get started and pointed members in the right direction.
WA is here to stay and is just improving every single month. It does work, but only if you’re willing to put in the work yourself! The reality is that it isn’t easy to earn a living online unless you have the right knowledge.