HYIP Monitors. Can you trust them?

This article will be about HYIP Monitor, explaining the whys and hows and whether newbie HYIP investors can trust them or not.

I assume that you are already aware that HYIP investment is very risky and now you are looking for any in-depth information on how to minimize the inherent risks as much as possible.

If you have read my previous articles about HYIP, you will have grasped the understanding that no HYIP program will stay forever. A great number of them will even live for only a few days, only until a certain amount of money have been collected. So, if you have understood this fact but decided to try your luck with your endeavor in HYIP world, you may want to read on.

For you that are very new with this HYIP things, let me explain a bit.

HYIP monitors are basically nothing more than privately owned websites - just like all those HYIP program websites - that list tens, or even hundreds of HYIP programs together with their basic info such as the names of the HYIP programs, when they were started, the rate of return promised and most importantly, whether they are still paying or not.

There is no rule whatsoever for HYIPs. There is no regulation body nor supervisory board like in other types of investment. Everybody can do everything and everyone can be everybody. It's really a jungle out there! Therefore, if you still want to enter it, do so at your own risk.

To the truth, there is nothing really fancy with HYIP monitor. Everyone can make a HYIP monitor website anytime he wishes. There are plenty of free and commercial scripts available for that. So, you should never rule out the possibility that maybe, the very HYIP monitor you are carefully digging from to get information about a specific HYIP program in fact belongs to the same person that own the HYIP program.

Get the point? You see, if that's the case, then no wonder the HYIP Monitor would never bring bad news about the HYIP program, at least until it really has become a scam. You may believe me if you wish, but if you have spent enough time browsing through many threads in HYIP forums all across the internet, you will find some specific HYIP Monitors that are even still promoting a HYIP program as "PAYING" even though in fact it had scammed its investors since months ago!

So, from that point of view, I say you can't really put your trust in any HYIP Monitor. But of course there are other details that we should also consider.

First, in many HYIP Monitors there are features provided for visitors to report (or give his/her reviews) about the HYIP investment programs listed there. You may want to read their posts to get better picture about a specific program.

But in doing so, I suggest you to also be careful because there are always possibilities of paid posters, whether paid to post good reviews/testimonies or paid to post negative things. The first paid posters of course were paid by the program owner (or those that are affiliated to him). If the program owner is a seasoned swindler, he might have a sheer number of paid posters to promote his fraudulent plans. And the negative paid-posters, as you might have guessed, are usually paid by the program's competitors.

Just for you to know in case you haven't realized it yet: there are so many, maybe even millions of HYIP investment programs ever existed with thousands others sprout everyday. But the number of new investors does not grow as fast, in fact, decreasing gradually over time. Thus, the competition among those HYIP programs are very fierce. And if you are a new kid in the block that is ready to pour out your hard-earned money into their scamming programs then, don't be surprised, you are coveted by many!

Therefore, you can not really trust the votes in those HYIP Monitors as well.

The second thing to consider regarding this HYIP Monitor thing is, the inter-dependency between the HYIP program and the HYIP Monitor. It's like phantom cicles.

Almost all HYIP Monitors require a HYIP investment program to register with them for a small fee. In many occasions, the required fee is paid with free account in the program, already pre-filled with certain amount of dollars. The HYIP Monitor then use the account to monitor the paying status of the HYIP program, some of them may add additional funds to the given account just to get bigger returns.

It doesn't take rocket science to see that the HYIP program owner knows exactly who to pay regularly and promptly so that he can get all the good advertisements he needs. No wonder many Monitors still receive payments and still report "PAYING" status for HYIP programs that had scammed their investors since a long time ago!

And the third aspect regarding the reliability of the information from HYIP Monitors is, the presence of conflict of interests.

HYIP Monitors live from the fees paid by HYIP investment programs and, primarily, from the yields (of their invested money) paid by the programs' owners. So, they have too big interest to ensure a program to, at the least, look running longer than it is in reality so that they would get paid many more times. That could also be the reason why some Monitors often seem too hesitant to change the status of an already scam program into "SCAM" or "NOT PAYING" because, in fact, they are still get paid!

Alright then, that's all for now. You see, you can not only rely on information you get from HYIP Monitors. If you still want to try your luck in HYIP investment, you had better do your own due diligence and read a lot before investing. Or, why not considering the more realistic investment types like mutual funds, bonds, or stock investing? It does not take big amount of money nowadays to invest in such legitimate plans. But maybe you will need to learn about the investing basics first.

HYIP Investments. HYIP Programs. Make sure that you know what you're up to

Beware of scam

So, you are tempted to make some HYIP investments? Beware of scam! All HYIP programs, no matter how good it seems they perform today, will scam someday.

I know the saying that not all HYIP programs will scam, or “only” 99% of HYIP programs will scam, or even “only” 99.9999% of them. I believed it as a beginner. Honestly, that gave me illusion that I would someday and somehow find the 1%-not-scamming programs, an illusion that eventually cost me, and countless other investors, big amount of money.

But I know better today. From my own experience, and from observing others’ experience, I can surely say now that ALL, 100% - NOT 99% NOR 99.9999% - HYIP programs are scam.

It’s just a matter of time until the program owner thinks that he has already got enough money from his “investors” before he shuts down his website and opens (an)other scamming program(s)! And you might again become one of his “investors” in his new program(s) unless you stop dreaming and start controlling your greed. Why? Because all HYIP programs are made to scam. And there is practically no way you could be sure about who is behind any HYIP programs.

Against these fraudulent schemes, The U.S. Security and Exchange Commission had issued a Warning to All Investors About Bogus “Prime Bank” and Other Banking-Related Investment Schemes saying that the fraud artists often mislead people into thinking that well regarded and financially sound institutions are behind their bogus programs while in fact they are not.

In another article about how the frauds work, The SEC lists some signs of those fraudulent schemes including excessive guaranteed returns and, fictitious financial instrument and exclusiveness. The article can be read here.

Yes, some HYIP investments websites may display identities in their “About Us” page, and you can even check via Whois about who registered the domain name and such. But, unless you have real good connection with CIA or Mossad - or the Russian mob :) - there is practically no way to verify if the information were true, let alone to chase him to get your money back once he had run away with your hard-earned money. So, once you pour your money into any of such programs, you are at the mercy of a scammer who, naturally, will not have any mercy at all because stealing your money is his ultimate goal.

Beware of greed

I know, you want to put your money in the so called HYIP investments because of the ultra-high interest rate offered. No banks nor any other legal financial institution can offer such high interests. Beware of greed! Trust me, greed would never get you anywhere but broke.

But if you insist and want to give it a try, let me warn you before you go on: there is no such thing as HYIP investments. Putting money in such HYIP investments, no matter how good the programs' presentation and how professional their websites' look, or even how long they have been around, is very risky. You could lose your money anytime.

In fact, the word "investment" in HYIP (High Yield Investment Program) is very misleading and should not be there. Why? Because basically, any HYIP program you can find in the internet is not, and never will be, an investment opportunity. FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) even had devised an intriguing alternative to the standard longer form of HYIP. To educate people, FINRA calls HYIP as "Hazardous to Your Investment Portfolio" in their July 2010 news release.

Although there is always a possibility that initially a HYIP program authored by, for instance, an “honest” forex trader who is looking for fresh money to trade - with a sincere intention to share the profits to his investors - such thing is a rarity. Even when you could find such “noble” HYIP program owner, who can guarantee that he would not be tempted to steal all the money put in his program later when there were already a great sum of money in his account, or when somehow he experienced difficulties to keep his promises paying high interests to all his investors?

After all, a really experienced and well-reputed forex trader would not have any difficulties finding investors. People rush to hand their money to ones that they know for sure would return them big profits. Only amateurs would create a HYIP program to collect money to trade.

Ponzi schemes

All HYIP programs are nothing more than ponzi-schemes: paying one member from subsequent members' money and so forth. Thus, the interest you get from a HYIP program is basically taken from other members’ money who join the program after you. You might be in profit, but your profit was at the expense of others! It’s not a real business when everybody can have a win-win position. In fact, it’s not a business at all. There is no such thing as investment in the so called “HYIP investments”.

I'd rather say that putting money into the so-called HYIP investments as a gambling rather than an investment. When you put your money into HYIP programs, you are gambling about when the website owner will leave and scam his "investors". If he did not leave until your "investment" matured (and you have been able to draw it into your e-currency account), then you're the lucky one and can consider yourself as winning the gamble, at the expense of other members, of course. But if not, then you're the loser and you had better forget about the money and go on with your life! And about the owner of the HYIP programs? Well, he is the real winner who will keep most of the money stored into his programs’ accounts for himself!

But if you still insist and want to give it a try after all these warnings, let me give you an advice: Never ever spend your money - in any HYIP program – more than you can afford to lose!