An old scam with a new twist is appearing lately on social media such as Twitter, Facebook, Craigslist and Instagram where an advertisement promises you that through a simple money flipping scheme that takes advantage of quirks in the monetary system, your investment of, for example $100 can quickly be turned into $1,000 by “flipping” and leveraging the money.  In case you need further convincing, the ads often have photographs of happy investors and testimonials about how easy it is.  This is the same type of ploy used by Charles Ponzi, the Godfather of today’s scammers including the infamous Bernie Madoff.  How the scheme works is that all you have to do is to purchase a prepaid debit card and put, for example $100 on the card.  You then provide your card number and PIN from the card to the scammer who promptly steals your money and is never heard from again.  Money lost through prepaid debit cards is impossible to recover which is why they are a payment method of choice of scam artists.

TIPS

Of course, if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is and this money flipping scam is no exception to this rule.  Another important rule in investing is to never invest in anything that you do not totally understand.  Anyone researching this scam would soon learn that it is nothing more than an impossible investment scam.  Finally, always be skeptical if anyone wants you to pay with a prepaid debit card.  Sometimes the arrangement may indeed be legitimate, but it should always put you on guard.