How to Detect if an Online High Yield Investment Program (HYIP) is Genuine

I have been investing in high yield investment programs (HYIP) since January 2009 and have fall victim of many scam HYIPs. But as time went on I learnt how to detect if an online HYIP is genuine or a scam. The truth remains that all high yield investment programs will one day become a scam, it is just a matter of when.

A HYIP that will last long usually give a reasonable Return On Investment (ROI). This ROI is usually low. Most HYIP that give high ROI, if they are still paying, will not give last long. Individuals or companies who start such HYIP have the intention of getting people’s money and running away with it. Though they claim to invest members’ funds in various market like FOREX, stocks and other HYIP, after starting for a while, they use the funds gotten from new members to pay old members. When they are not able to keep up paying or when they have reach the target of the amount they want, they just stop paying all of a sudden, even though their site may still be up and running. Those who are new to HYIP fall victim of these HYIPs. But really the major rule in investment is not to invest blindly, investigate the HYIP program before you invest.

Here are some tips to use in checking if an online HYIP is genuine.

Check HYIP monitoring website

Just like the name implies, HYIP monitoring websites are websites that list high yield investing programs and let you know their status. They also usually give you a brief introduction to the HYIP program, their investment plans and some of them give their payout rate. Normally, when looking for a HYIP, this is where you will find them. On these sites you can see the status of a HYIP, whether they are paying, have a problem or not paying. Some HYIP monitoring website include: www.hothyips.com, www.goldpoll.com, www.hyipranks.com, www.hyipinvestment.com, www.hyip-recommendation.com, www.aurumgames.com, www.myhyip.com, www.365money.com, www.worldhyip.com, www.hyips-analysis.com, www.hyipexplorer.com.

Check the Return On Investment (ROI)

The higher the return on investment, the more likely for the HYIP to be a scam and if it is not a scam, then there is a high possibility that it will not last long. That does not mean that those who pay low return on investment cannot be scams too.

Check the Website Design and Use of English (if the sight is designed in English)

The design of the website must be really unique and user-friendly. It must not be similar to that of other scam sites. Check the grammar used on the website and there should be no spelling mistakes on the site.

Check the Domain Name of the Website.
If the owner of a HYIP site is genuine he, she or they should be able to pay for a proper domain name. So how do you check if a domain name is free or paid for? There are two procedures in verifying that a domain name is paid for.

First, when you are on the website, check your web browser address bar. If the website is a genuine HYIP, it should have only a domain name e.g. www.myhyip.com, myhyip.com, www.myhyip.net or myhyip.net. In the examples, myhyip is the domain name. If the website address has a subdomain name then this means that it is a free website and there is a high probability of it being a scam. An example of a website address with a subdomain name is investment.myhyip.com, where investment is the subdomain name and myhyip is the domain name. Such HYIP should be avoided.

The next thing to do after verifying that the website address is not a subdomain is to check for the registration information of the website. This can be done by going to www.whois.ws. Here type in the website address into textbox provided and click ok. The page returned should contain in the name of the company that registered the website, the contact information of the person or company that paid for the website and most important information to look for is when the website was created and when the hosting space paid for will expire. This can help you avoid scams.

Check the Contact Page of the Website

A good and reliable HYIP should have a contact page on their website. More than that they should provide a physical address that can be checked out (either by search the web or through other means) and a phone number that one can call and ask them questions. They should also have a contact email address. To further verify how genuine they are, you can go ahead and email or call them asking them question like how do they make their money or any other question, probably about something you do not understand about their website or investment plan? If they are genuine they will respond to your call or email (that is if the phone number and email exist and are working) and from their response you will be able to tell how real they are. On the other hand, if they are a scam then it is either the email and phone number do not exist, they do not reply your email or pick your call or they will just tell you to just invest. In my early days of investment I once fell a victim when I asked them a question about something that has to do with payment on their website and their response was just to go ahead and invest. Poor me, as a newbie then I did not know enough to tell me that was a scam.

They should not send you email.

A good HYIP should not send you email asking you to join them. Think it through, why would a good and reliable HYIP engage in email scamming?

Check Online Forums for What People Say About The Investment.

The last place I would check before finally investing are online HYIP forums. Forums are where people with common interest meet to discuss issues. Here you will see what people say about a particular investment program. Most HYIP have where you can search for where a HYIP to know what people say about such a program. An example of HYIP forum is www.talkgold.com. Here you would have to first register with them to be able to search their forum. After logging in, click on the search menu and type in the name or website address of the HYIP you would like to know more about and click ok. It will display a search result containing possibilities. Look among the search result for a result that looks more like the name of the HYIP website. There you will find what others have been saying about the program whether the program has been paying or not, or any other problem they HYIP may have. Other forums include: www.goldentalk.com and www.moneymakergroup.com