Probably most of us would be happy to find a cheat code that would help us to earn good money without doing too much work, right? Well, there are quite a few “opportunities”, but unfortunately, they won’t help you make a good career or positive change in the world and may not be really legal.
However, there are also other ‘side hustles’ that can help you make good money. But there is a catch - while they are legal, they are not really ethical. So while you may not have problems with breaking a law, it may make you feel a bit bad.
Speaking of which, one Reddit user created a thread online asking people to share some unethical, but legal ways to make money. So sit back and scroll through them!
More info: Reddit
#1
My cousin came to me one Thursday saying he needed an extra $200 by Sunday. Told him good luck. He went out and bought 4 bottles of everclear, some jugs of Walmart apple cider, cinnamon sticks, and mason jars. Simmered it in a pot for like an hour and jarred them all and wrote $25 on top of each. Called his country friends and told them he made homemade apple spiced moonshine. 25 EA or two for 40. He had $400 the next day. Sometimes I hate him.
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190points
#2
Rapture pet insurance. For 300.00 per pet up front, I,a certified atheist will come to your home and care for your animals in the event you are raptured
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142points
Bored Panda reached out to the original poster (OP) u/OneBadTomatoYT who created this thread and he kindly agreed to share the motivation behind it, if he believes there should be stricter regulations or oversight on these types of activities, and if fellow Redditors sparked new ideas.
To begin with, the OP shared that he was interested in starting the thread after he watched the movie War Dogs.
#3
Go to a rave and sell individually wrapped brownies for $20 each.
You never explicitly said they had weed in them but for $20 people assume..
best part is, youll be long gone before they even begin to suspect its not legit
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139points
#4
A girl I knew put herself through college selling only pics of her feet to gross men with fetishes. I saw the pics and money transfers
Edit: One guy paid her nearly a grand to have pro pics taken of her stepping on food. Mashed potatoes, birthday cake. Suddenly I felt like a moron for going to my 9-5
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135points
#5
Get hired at a labor type job, and then report your employer the first time that you see any safety violations (which you will on your very first day most likely). Your boss will find out that you reported it, and will start treating you like s**t and eventually fire you. Now you sue your ex employer for "retaliation firing". You will win, for sure...you've got a paper trail with OSHA as the person who reported them etc...very easy to prove. And it's not illegal because your boss #1 should have followed safety protocol, and #2 shouldn't have retaliation fired you. I wouldn't even feel bad in the slightest
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101points
Now, discussing whether there should be stricter regulations on these ways to make good money, OP emphasized that he believes there shouldn't be. “Unethical doesn't mean illegal already. And it comes down to morals, and everyone's are different. Some things are already illegal, some people find moral, and vice versa.”
#6
My dad had this great idea to go door to door installing peep holes, and you can start your pitch with, “I bet you would have liked to know who was on the other side of this door” each cost like 5 bucks, install for 50 and be done in 5 minutes.
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95points
#7
Have a place to rent and charge $50 application fee. Keep accepting applications but don't approve anyone
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93points
And finally, OP emphasized that the ideas to make money by doing drop-shipping were interesting. “I personally do not see how some would consider it ‘unethical’ or ‘immoral’, but maybe I am not fully educated on it,” OP noted.
#8
Selling things that cater to conspiracy theorists, as long as you're not trying to list it as an actual medicine and it has no negative effects you're good to go. You can sell all the anti 5G blinking diodes in a scifi looking piece of plastic, spiritually health bettering candles that are just wax with some lemon oil or vanilla, toxin removal pads for feet that turn black in contact with water, essential oils. The unethical part is catering to (and using for profit) gullible people that'd rather have their kid die in their arms from a preventable disease than take a mmr shot.
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88points
#9
Lend money to people who have no other option so you can abusively charge overdraft fees, while your biggest clients get literally millions in tax cuts for literally no reason
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73points
And what do you think about them? Would you like to make some money this way? Share your thoughts in the comments!
#10
Spells and curses on Etsy. There’s a seemingly large market for them. Some aren’t *that* unethical (e.g. “break up spell” - they’re the unethical ones for requesting it) whilst some are very very exploitative (e.g. “get pregnant spell”). They go for hundreds and you don’t need to send proof. Easy money 💰
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63points
#12
Set up a negative option billing program - aka free trial offers.
1. Get some hot/popular vitamins from China in bulk - they will even ship in unlabeled containers.
2. Create a brand a label for your product.
3. Set up a basic ecomm website.
4. Create some basic social media ads.
5. Offer a subscription where you offer one container free and then start charging a monthly fee if they do not cancel within the first month.
6. Mark up the product 200-1000%.
7. Profit.
As long as you stay on top of customer complaints and offer refunds quickly, you can make a ton of money this way and it's not illegal, just shady.
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49points
#13
Invest heavily in private prisons and weapons manufacturing.
Look into Sin Stocks as well.
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46points
#14
Well, I've been trying to get a screen protector for my phone. I've ordered several ones for under £5 on eBay, and even though I select the correct model they are always generic and wrong.
I mark as wanting to return, take a photo and write the truth, it doesn't fit despite me picking the right one
They refund and never ask for them back. Sell on.
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36points
#15
Pyramid Scheme, Selling stuff on the internet with misleading information, or become an internet guru about something and sell courses about nothing. (Tiktok has alot of these)
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35points
#16
Learned about this one on the radio this morning. Obituary thieves. They will snipe trending names off of google and run fake obituaries with fake egregious information to drive up web traffic to advertised sites. The New York Post just did an article about it when a team from India ran a bunch of fake articles about a college kid who died.
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32points
#17
Sue rich people over dumb s**t and hope for the best
If they settle out of court it can be very lucrative
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26points
#19
Serious answer:
Buy something in bulk on AliExpress at a nice discount on top of the already cheap prices.
Saw the items on eBay for a lot more or open up a booth at the mall or flea market selling at a substantial markup.
AliExpress is filled with bootleg gaming systems that people will buy.
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23points
