5 Seemingly Illegal Business Ideas that Generate Good Money

When you think of a job, you might picture an office full of people who are laser-focused on their work. However, there are some lucrative business ideas many assume are illegal but are not. Although it may raise the question of morality.

Many people are raised with this vision of work and ignore other opportunities for fulfilment and financial security.

Some unique employment in unknown or risky business areas may appear legal or unethical at first, but if the people who hire workers for some of these roles can publicly advertise job openings, they are probably not illegal after all.

Here are 5 seemingly illegal business ideas you can do.

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1. Fake reviews

Hiring writers to generate fake reviews to compliment a company’s services or products is unethical but not necessarily illegal. Report shows that writers in this field earn anything from $5 to $20 for each good review they write for businesses.

Some brands even advertise online and promise to pay up to $50 to anybody who writes and publishes positive reviews about them.

This technique is so common that it’s been estimated that at least 30% of online reviews are not written by real consumers.

A 44-year-old British man, Ian Taylor, interviewed by BBC, said he writes fake reviews “in his spare time and to supplement his income.” According to him, asides from the monetary value, he also gets free products.

2. Computer hacking 

Hacking a computer can be considered an illegal skill or a job. However, some types of computer hacking are legal when done with permission.

Companies frequently pay computer specialists to hack into their systems in order to identify vulnerabilities and weak endpoints so they can be addressed.

This is done as a preventive measure against legit hackers with malicious motives. 

A famous ethical hacker Kevin Mitnick once said, “It’s true, I had hacked into a lot of companies and took copies of the source code to analyse it for security bugs. If I could locate security bugs, I could become better at hacking into their systems. It was all towards becoming a better hacker.”

3. Online dating ghostwriter

Ghostwriting online dating profiles is a great example of a job that seems morally wrong but isn’t illegal.

It will be awkward to reveal that your dating app profile was written by someone else on a first date or later. And you wouldn’t want to reveal that someone was impersonating you during a conversation. Neither of these acts, however, is illegal by law.

People who struggle to communicate in English, for example, may hire an online dating ghostwriter to help them organise their profile.

English speakers who have trouble writing may hire an online dating ghostwriter to assist them to spice up their profiles.

People who think they are boring conversationists may outsource their dating app account to a ghostwriter until it’s time to meet up with their date.

Popular dating sites and freelance markets are common places for online dating ghostwriters to find employment. Discretion, as well as excellent writing skills, are usually important aspects of their employment.

New York dating coach Meredith Golden charges $900 for ghostwriting online dating profiles. In her interview with MarketWatch, she said, “I am a jack of all trades in this sense; I do all of the profiles, including selecting photos and writing the bios.”

4. The crypto meme artist

You wouldn’t have expected bitcoin would be that well-known ten years ago. Most of its popularity is partly due to the online cryptocurrency community that adore memes.

Because of this large community, other cryptocurrencies — over 16,000 of them, though not all of them are active – may employ crypto meme artists.

A good example is a recent job posting from the open-source crypto platform Gitcoin. This job posting was looking for someone with “excellent vibes” who spend “far too much time on Twitter and Discord.” To put it another way, this applicant is someone who is familiar with crypto memes.

5. Sex consultant 

A sex consultant teaches people how to strengthen their relationships and have healthy intimacy with one another.

Andrea Adams-Miller, a sex consultant who calls herself “The Sexuality Tutor,” said, “I ease their initial shock by following up with ‘I assist others in achieving healthy relationships and healthy sexuality by revealing to them the secrets to ignite the spark, fire, and passion in their lives.’”

Although the business appears to be solely about intimacy, it is actually about assisting people in improving their communication skills.

It can be challenging to explain this business to an African. Their immediate reaction could be one of uneasiness and preconception.

However, the uneasiness may turn into interest and a desire to learn more, which may be followed by a personal admission or confession of a problem in their own life.

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