LG John

Somehow my name is on one of these lists where I get send all sorts of 'great new business idea's, i.e. How to turn £500 into £5 million....I work 2 hours a week and earn £50k a year.....I'm gay but loaded, etc!!!

Usually I give these the time of day to at least read them (sheer bordom!) and then I use them as fire material to heat my home and save me money or as a coffee mat.

Anyway, I got to wondering! Has anyone on here (or know of anyone) that has actually got involved in such things and actually made so useful money or is my guess that they are 99.9999% bullsh1t fairly accurate.

Thoughts and discussion

Pete Croney

Peter Foster makes money out of such schemes.

Mind you, I don't much like his choice of friends. They seem a very dishonest lot

Crush

Sounds like you've made someone pretty angry at you! That's a classic revenge trick Signing their name up for every junk mail thing going

LG John

That's true crush but I don't get swamped by such things and it doesn't really bother me....besides it goes to my parents house. Ha, ha, ha

Impreza Boy

Most of them are 99.9999% bullsh1t, like the ones sent by email from deposed dictators in 3rd world countries asking for your bank details so they can deposit £25 million as they are on the run from the new regime etc etc
Me and one of my mates actually replied to one of these and gave bank details for an account of his (not mine ) which had about a tenner in it, he had had it for years, guess what, no £25 million...!!

john banks

Investigated a few of the more interesting ones when I was more naive. Mortgage broker, sports betting, Amway, property/government auctions etc. Scams? Either that or crap

LG John

Well the 'how to fiddle around with ECU's' one seems to be working John

Any other experiences or opinions. I'd prefer to hear from people with actual experience such as John rather than those that simply think such things surely can't work. Whilst I agree that they probably won't I haven't invested/wasted money to find out and it would be unfair for me to say without having done so.

john banks

I have wasted a total of about £1100 on scams. Most of this was on a system whereby you backed all the outcomes of a sporting event with different bookies in a way that you gained whatever the outcome. Different bookies offer different odds especially on small events. It would actually and did work for a few things where you could place all the bets within about 10 minutes of getting an alert email. After that the odds changed, and the gains were typically 5% of the total bet. With maximum bets of £500 or less on a lot of the events there wasn't much money to be made. Would have worked if I could be at the PC all the time ready to place bets at very short notice. I didn't figure on the worst case scenario, bit wiser now, operating in this way with the ECU stuff has made if my first successful venture other than my main job, and boy have I been looking!

LG John

Very interesting John...you're refering to arbitrage betting and I have given this some thought. I was planning of looking at it more closely and trying to find some arbs in the new year but based on what you said it seems pretty pointless. That said, fast blue scooby (i think) claims to have made some money from arbitrage betting so maybe it can be made to work.

It makes you wonder if there is a way to make money other than old fashioned hard graft....or drug dealing

LG John

Oh and the reason why its your first successful venture to me is obvious. You've trained yourself/learned a knowledge/skill that is in demand but where that demand is not being met. As far as I know your the only ECU tek guy in scotland therefore you have a near monopoly in that market. Basic supply and demand economics If you wrote some wonder idiots guide on how to map scooby's you'd simply shoot yourself in the foot as people throughout the country would aquire the knowledge.

Good on ya I say

P.S. How do you map

Fast_Blue_Scooby

Saxo Boy, yes you are correct in your assumption.

13.5k in the last 18 months I have made using that style of betting. However too time consuming and in the last 6 months, only had 2 months where I have actually bothered. May look at the markets again when I am off over Xmas period. Also the betting exchanges are a good way to play as the bookie,only if you know your stuff that us!

There is easier money to be made, buying property that is worse for wear and doing it up. Mind you it is hard work but I've more than doubled my investment according to valuations. Saying that house prices are silly at the moment, better to sell up, move abroad somewhere warmer, buy a much cheaper house and drive the scooby each and every day and have some fun!!!

LG John

Speak of the devil

You've done well to make that kind of money in that period!

As a planning officer I can see the value in property development. I recall a year and a half ago my girlfriend and I looked at buying a modern mid-terraced 2 bedroom house near where the new Edinburgh Royal Infirmary was being built. It was a fixed price of £47k. The previous owners had been reposesed and punched holes in the walls on their way out Anyway, to cut a long story short we didn't buy it because of the state it was in but in hindsite with my dads building contacts (knows everyone - plumers, plasters, electritions, joiners, etc) we could have bought it and whipped it into very good shape for very little money (roughing it for a while of course). By now, given the way Edinburgh's house prices have been going and the fact the area has been boosted by the infirmary I'm confident useful profit could have been made We've split up now so it was probably for the best but I can't help but think I missed a good opportunity

Impreza Boy

Price of property in Edinburgh is nuts, two of my mates bought an old house (split into two) with a bit of land in the deal for £90k total, locally, houses needed a fair amount of work but were do'able (around 20k each needed spent). Houses are now worth 120K each and the bit of land has just been sold for £80K.
Means they got their houses for 5K each after spending 20K each, leaves them nearly 100 grand up each :P
Nice
Doesn't come along every day tho

MarkO

I think the main rule with these 'scams' is that if it sounds too good to be true, it almost certainly is.

BTW, Saxo Boy, you're a planning officer in Edinburgh? Any chance of you accepting a bribe if we find a bit of land and need to get permission to build on it?

LG John

If you can get a bit of land in and around Edinburgh (in the countryside) and get planning permission to build a house on it...........well.............I'll eat me hat