By: Ann Nurse - at August 21, 2013

Most schemes create an impression that participants can obtain this high rate of return with little risk, and with little skill, effort, or time. Get-rich-quick schemes often assert that wealth can be obtained by working at home. Legal and quasi-legal get-rich-quick schemes are frequently advertised on infomercials and in magazines and newspapers. Here are some warning signs of a pyramid scheme: Promoters make extravagant promises about your earning potential. These promises are false. Promoters emphasize recruiting new distributors for your sales network as the real way to make money. In a legitimate MLM program, you should be able to make money just by selling the product.

'Money makes the world go round,' as the saying goes. People have always thought outside the box to find ways to make money and pay the bills, especially when in a difficult situation; however, more bizarre schemes always seem to come to light in tough economic times. With the rise of technology and the ease of finding customers via the Internet, more platforms have opened for smart people to supplement their income when needed. Whether it is selling their skills, selling themselves, or doing things for people, people have found some bizarre ways to make money. Through capitalizing on a larger customer base through the Internet, many of these individuals have been able to take a small idea and make it larger, and even create successful large-scale businesses out of the idea.

Although not all crazy schemes have worked well from a legal standpoint, there is a high success rate of making money through these bizarre and crazy ideas. Listed below are the top 15 craziest successful money making schemes. Some of them only brought in small amounts of funds, helpful in a pinch with the possibility of adding up to some more. Others have successfully brought in millions of dollars. Regardless of how much money they were able to amass, they have all been successful in helping innovative people in a strapped economy make some extra money when traditional sources of income have failed them.

15) Egg and Sperm Donation
Who would have thought that selling your gametes could actually help you pay the bills? In the modern world, having children has become a more and more complex procedure, especially for couples or individuals who for whatever reason cannot have children of their own. Couples can use surrogate mothers, donated sperm and donated eggs in order to bring a new life into the world. With more and more couples choosing this path for children, it opens up a lucrative opportunity for making money, especially if you are fit, have great genes, and are well educated.

Egg Retrieval Procedure Before In Vitro Fertilization

For men, sperm donation is a simple procedure, so it is easy to donate many times over months and years, whenever you are in a financial pinch. Your height, health, education, fitness and sperm motility enhances the price of your donation, which can be anywhere between $1 to $200 per donation. Although this is not much money for one donation, it can always accrue if you make multiple donations. For women, egg donation is a much more lucrative option and it is also a more invasive procedure. It requires an actual surgical procedure that removes the eggs from the ovaries, along with some hormone therapy. However, egg donation can pay thousands of dollars, even up to $10,000 or more depending on your health, your education, your genes and your fitness.

14) Secret Shoppers
If you love to shop and are looking for a way to make money doing it, then becoming a mystery shopper may just be the career for you. Market research companies, watchdog organizations, and other companies hire people to shop at various stores and provide feedback from their experience. As a mystery shopper, you measure the quality of the service from the employees and ensure that they are in compliance with all regulations. You might even be gathering information about the products and services offered at the store.

As a mystery shopper, you do more than just shop at your leisure. You will be asked to perform particular actions like buy a product, ask specific questions or types of questions, complain about something, or act in a particular way, especially a bothersome or troublesome manner. All of these actions will help you evaluate the store and its employees. Once you have finished your shopping trip, you report back to the company that hired you. Depending on for whom you are working, what you do at the store may differ. If the actual company owning the store hires you, they may have more specific actions they want you to do to test the integrity and skills of their employees. Alternatively, a watchdog organization will focus on the governmental regulations. A market research company will focus on the products and services and how they may work in the larger market.

13) Mystery Diners
Similar to secret shoppers, you can become a mystery diner. This is a particularly lucrative option for foodies who love to eat at restaurants, but do not want to fork out the dough. You will be asked to go to a particular restaurant and eat there, without the restaurant knowing why you are there. You will go to the restaurant as though you are a regular guest. Depending on who hires you, you may be asked to order a particular meal or act in a particular manner. Once you are finished with your meal, you will report back to the company your findings.

By Posing as a Couple Out To Eat, Mystery Diners Evaluations for Restaurants

Mystery diners can be used to evaluate the restaurant for many reasons, like looking at its service or the quality of its food. A watchdog organization may want you to help ensure that the restaurant follows all health codes and regulations. Although you may not make a ton of money as a mystery diner, you can at least get lots of tasty food for free. You may even get to eat at very exclusive, expensive restaurants without having to worry about paying a dime.

12) Selling Used Women's Underwear
Sex sells, and the fetishism industry is a hot commodity. One off-beat money making scheme that has made some people rich is selling women's used underwear online. There are people in the world who have a fetish for used women's underwear, and will pay richly for it. Therefore, some women have decided to exploit the fetishism in order to make some quick and easy money.

Craigslist and eBay are common resources for female individuals who are desperate for cash, and do not mind selling their old underwear. Some companies have jumped on board as well, creating websites were fetishists can come and get their fix for women's undies -- at a price. The men do not care who owned the underwear, any woman of any background and situation can make money from their used underwear. It can be lucrative, as well. You can make around $800 in just half a day from selling a few pairs of your undergarments online.

11) Selling Sex via Craigslist
Another shady moneymaking scheme involves selling sex on Craigslist. There have been many instances of people resorting to the world's oldest profession to help pay the bills. You no longer have to go to the street corner or visit a brothel. Instead, you can just look on eBay or Craigslist to get your (most likely illegal) thrills. A couple in New York was arrested for offering sexual services on Craigslist. The husband offered a night of fun with his wife at a hotel on Craigslist for a fee to help pay the couple's bills after he lost his job. Although they were caught before anything could occur, it shows how desperate people sometimes turn to desperate actions to make money. This couple is not the only one resorting to using the Internet to make money through sex.

There has been a trend lately of young women offering their virginity on Craigslist and auction sites like eBay. One Brazilian student offered her virginity on eBay and got an amazing $780,000. One San

What Make Money Schemes Are Real