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A get-rich-quick scheme is a plan to obtain high rates of

return Return may refer to: In business, economics, and finance * Return on investment (ROI), the financial gain after an expense. * Rate of return, the financial term for the profit or loss derived from an investment * Tax return, a blank document or t ...

for a small

investment Investment is traditionally defined as the "commitment of resources into something expected to gain value over time". If an investment involves money, then it can be defined as a "commitment of money to receive more money later". From a broade ...

. Most schemes create an impression that participants can obtain this high rate of return with little

risk In simple terms, risk is the possibility of something bad happening. Risk involves uncertainty about the effects/implications of an activity with respect to something that humans value (such as health, well-being, wealth, property or the environ ...

, skill, effort, or time. The term "get rich quick" has been used to describe shady investments since at least the early 20th century. Get-rich-quick schemes often assert that

wealth Wealth is the abundance of valuable financial assets or physical possessions which can be converted into a form that can be used for transactions. This includes the core meaning as held in the originating Old English word , which is from an ...

can be obtained by

working at home Remote work (also called telecommuting, telework, work from or at home, WFH as an initialism, hybrid work, and other terms) is the practice of working at or from one's home or another space rather than from an office or workplace. The pract ...

. Get-rich-quick schemes that operate entirely on the Internet usually promote "secret formulas" to

affiliate marketing Affiliate marketing is a marketing arrangement in which Affiliate (commerce), affiliates receive a wiktionary:commission, commission for each visit, signup or sale they generate for a merchant. This arrangement allows businesses to Outsourcing, ...

and affiliate advertising. The scheme will usually claim that it does not require any special IT or marketing skills and will provide an unrealistic timeframe in which the individual could make hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars. Since the growth in popularity of

non-fungible token A non-fungible token (NFT) is a unique digital identifier that is recorded on a blockchain and is used to certify ownership and authenticity. It cannot be copied, substituted, or subdivided. The ownership of an NFT is recorded in the blockchai ...

s (NFTs) in the early 2020s, skeptics have accused many NFT projects of resembling get-rich-quick schemes. Legal and quasi-legal get-rich-quick schemes are frequently advertised on

infomercial An infomercial is a form of television commercial that resembles regular TV programming yet is intended to promote or sell a product, service or idea. It generally includes a toll-free telephone number or website. Most often used as a form of di ...

s and in magazines and newspapers. Illegal schemes or

scams A scam, or a confidence trick, is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using a combination of the victim's credulity, naivety, compassion, vanity, confidence, irresponsibil ...

are often advertised through

spam Spam most often refers to: * Spam (food), a consumer brand product of canned processed pork of the Hormel Foods Corporation * Spamming, unsolicited or undesired electronic messages ** Email spam, unsolicited, undesired, or illegal email messages ...

cold calling Cold calling is the solicitation of business from potential customers who have had no prior contact with the salesperson conducting the call. It is an attempt to convince potential customers to purchase the salesperson's product or service. Gene ...

. Some forms of advertising for these schemes market books or

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. It employs the Compact Disc Digital Audio (CD-DA) standard and was capable of hol ...

s about getting rich quick rather than asking participants to invest directly in a concrete scheme.

References

Bibliography

Leila Schneps Leila Schneps is an American mathematician and fiction writer at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique working in number theory. Schneps has written general audience math books and, under the pen name Catherine Shaw, has written mathe ...

and

Coralie Colmez Coralie Colmez is a French author and tutor in mathematics and mathematics education. Early life and career Coralie Colmez is the daughter of mathematicians Pierre Colmez and Leila Schneps. Colmez was raised in Paris. After completing her seco ...

, '' Math on trial. How numbers get used and abused in the courtroom'', Basic Books, 2013. . (Eighth chapter: "Math error number 8: underestimation. The case of Charles Ponzi: American dream, American scheme"). {{Scams and confidence tricks Confidence tricks Finance fraud

See also

References

Bibliography