High Yield Investment Programs (HYIP) are (a lot of the time) a form of Ponzi scheme in which a high level of return is promised for a small initial investment into a forex fund. However, in reality, the initial investors are only being paid back by the money generated by the current investors and once there are no more investors in the scheme the owners usually close it down and take all money remaining.

This is a very common form of affinity fraud. They promise high returns from a small initial investment upfront. The early investors usually do gain some sort of return on their money and motivated by this success they then recruit their friends and family into the scheme. However, the truth is that the ‘investment opportunity’ does not actually exist and their initial return is being funded by money paid in by other members of the scheme. When the investor numbers start to drop the scammers close the scheme and take the money. We have covered this type of scam in-depth under the Ponzi & Pyramid scams section.