6 Side Hustle Scams You Shouldn’t Fall For
Photo by Anna Shvets from Pexels
The best way to make money is by making content about how to make money. I am sick unto death of reading and watching how easy it is to make money online. As someone who does it for her living, let me tell you: it’s not!
Screenshot from this scammy video on how to make money online. Watch at your own risk.
Everyone will promise you that you can easily make a large sum of money — $2,000-$5,000 per month, or $300 a day! — just by typing a single word into a form. If you believe the hype, by picking up some quick and simple side hustles you can become a millionaire within a few short weeks. I’ve read so many blog posts, watched so many videos, and seen so many tweets to that effect.
Here is a cold hard nugget of truth you don’t want to hear: it’s not easy, quick, or simple for beginners to start a profitable side hustle. If someone is telling you it is, it’s a side hustle scam.
If you prefer watching, you can see my video below:
As I’ve consumed so many of these fraudulent pieces of content, I know what the warning signs are. If you spot any of these, you’ll know not to waste your time on these six side hustle scams.
1. The Side Hustle Scam That Doesn’t Require Skills
YouTubers and bloggers will tell you that anyone, regardless of skill, can easily pick up this side hustle and start earning bank tomorrow. The scam depends on you believing it.
To make money, you have to be good at what you do. This goes for blogging, making videos, creating graphic design content, proofreading, and more.
I really do believe anyone can start blogging, learn over time to be a good writer, and make money that way. The harsh truth is that unless you’re already good at writing, it’ll take a long time before you’re earning real money. I made a ton of money as a new writer, but that was because I had plenty of advantages that not everyone else has.
The lie to watch out for is: “If I can do this, so can you.”
Examples include this guy promising you can create an amazing graphic in Canva with zero skills which you can sell on Upwork, or this guy promising you can make $100-$200 a day with Google and neglecting the fact you need to know how to sell your services and send out tons of cold emails.
2. The Side Hustle Scam That Requires an Audience
This is the most prevalent scam I see promoted out there. I call it a scam because even though the platforms aren’t scams, the “influencers” telling you that you can easily make money with a podcast, a Patreon, or an OnlyFans are scamming you for clicks, views, or affiliate links sales.
It’s not easy. Before you’re successful on those platforms, you need to do the heavy, time-consuming, drudging legwork of building an audience — and then you have to sell people on it.
I wrote for a year and built a large audience of fans before I started even promoting my Patreon, and it still only earned $250/month. My YouTube channel is similarly successful, but still only makes about $300/month.
It’s money, sure, but I spent hours and hours of unpaid work building my audience. These are not quick side hustles that will make you rich.
If someone tells you you can rapidly make money with any kind of platform that requires an audience, they’re wrong and you should run away.
3. The Side Hustle Scam That “Anyone” Can Do… Except Them
This is my favorite scam because it’s so laughably transparent. Have a quick search on YouTube and you’ll instantly see overblown promises about earning money by doing X awesome thing. The one that made me laugh the most was this guy who promised you could make $30 by typing a single word. (Spoiler: you actually had to type a word into this janky logo generator, and sell your services as a “professional logo creator” on Upwork.)
If it’s such an awesome, fun, quick, easy way to make money, then why don’t we see your profile and receipts, Dave? Because you’re scamming us.
If your creator isn't posting receipts (or is only posting receipts of other people doing the thing) then it’s a side hustle scam. They’re preying on your desire to make quick money and counting on your suspension of disbelief to look for proof.
4. The Side Hustle Scam That Requires You Post on Upwork
That leads me to my second-favorite side hustle scam. These scams rely on telling you to do a very basic task and selling it on Upwork for a ridiculously high fee. Examples include the video above.
If you’re selling your work on Upwork or anywhere else, you need to be a talented individual with either very low prices or a standout background because you’re competing with people who have both of those. If anyone can do that task, like the logo generator or the Canva template, then rest assured, they already are, and they’re better than you and charging lower rates than you.
Upwork is a great place to find work, but it’s not good for beginners. So many side hustle scammers try to point you to Upwork because there are lots of examples of successful side hustlers there, so they can claim, “Look at this person charging $130 for her work, guys. That could be you!”
But they neglect the fact that you won’t stand a chance among them.
For example, a side hustle scam video might tell you that you can easily charge $30 for a logo by showing you a project that charges that. They won’t show you that the guy charging $30/logo has nine years’ experience.
5. The Side Hustle Scam That Promotes a Dodgy Site
Embarrassingly, I did fall for this scam because it seemed legit. Though warning bells told me it was probably too good to be true, I still signed up because Finance Girl told me I could make $450+/day typing names.
(If it were truly possible to make $450+ per day by typing names, everyone would do it.)
I watched this video and it directed me to a website I’m not going to list here because I don’t want to give more clicks. But as soon as I saw the website, I started realizing the whole thing was a side hustle scam, probably designed to make ad revenue from views and clicks.
With poor web design and typos abounding, circuitous linking, and too-good-to-be-true offers, I suspect that Finance Girl earns money from sending people to this website, which earns money from ads and other sponsorships. I did sign up and have yet to hear back despite my obvious talent at typing names.
The funniest thing to me is the staggering lack of self-awareness this site has. It prompts me to “Choose a job [I] love!” and then offers me fantastic opportunities to transcribe medical records. Lol.
A final screenshot so you can share this laugh with me.
6. The Teaching Side Hustle Scam
This is a popular one because there is a seed of truth to it. You can make some decent money tutoring if you’re good at teaching and willing to put in the hours.
But if someone’s promising you that you can make $7,500 per month with “this awesome website,” and all you need to do is answer homework questions? Well, I’m gonna call bull.
Teaching can be a good side hustle if you have marketable skills, you’re willing to sell yourself, you are able to put up with teaching (harder than it looks) and you find steady work. It is a side hustle scam if it promises easy money fast. That’s the rule.
Because it IS possible to earn money with tutoring and teaching, what you’re looking out for is the following phrase: “up to.” Can you earn “up to” $10,000 per week? Possibly. Will you? Definitely not. This phrase allows side hustle scams like this to flourish in the margins between truth and lies.
Screenshot for the video promising *up to* $7,500 per month with teaching.
Stop Falling for Fool’s Gold
Side hustle scams abound because humans are eternally optimistic. On the one hand, that’s beautiful. I love that even after decades of bad marketing, there is a thriving audience for side hustle scams to judge by the view count on some of these articles and videos. It means we hope for the best even when the evidence says otherwise.
On the other, I hate that so many people take advantage of that hope and faith by convincing you to waste time, money, resources on these side hustle scams. (Also, they give people like me a bad name — you really can make money by writing online, but I don’t promise it’s easy!)
Next time you’re about to fall for one of these horrific side hustle scams, look for:
Receipts. Can the creator do it? If not, why are they promoting it?
Upwork. Will you be competing with more skilled, lower-priced individuals?
Lack of skills. Can anyone do it? If so, why isn’t everyone plumbing this for easy money?
Dodgy promotions. What are they trying to get you to buy or click on?
If all else fails, use common sense: if it were really possible to make money with this awesome, easy side hustle, why isn’t everyone? Stay away from these side hustle scams and do the harder, more honest work of building a life doing what you love for hard, slow money.
