Are those “auto-pilot” programs a scam or waste of time?
"Genuine (nearly) passive income can be had from some kinds of investing. Index funds are an example of a mostly self-managing investment. Of course investment involves some risk (the income is essentially paying you for taking that risk) and returns are reasonable but proportional to the risk -- IE, not spectacular unless the risk is high. If someone is claiming they can get you better than market rate of return, look carefully at what they are getting out of it and what the risks are. Fees subtract directly from your gains, and if they claim there is no additional risk, they need to prove that. You are giving someone your money. Be very sure you are going to get it back. If it isn't self-evident where the income comes from, it's probably a scam. If someone is using the term ""auto-pilot"", it is almost certainly a scam. If they are talking about website advertising and the like, it is far from autopilot if you want to make any noticable amount of money (though you may make money for them)." These have been around for decades. In the 80's and 90's they had you setup small ads in local newspapers and you would sell a brochure tells people how to make money, or solve some other problem. The idea was that money would roll in. The more ads you placed the more money you made. In the late 90's they had you setup a small website instead of a small newspaper advertisement , but the rest was the same. They were also done with eBay as the medium. Now they are live streams.  Most of the money made is by the people selling you the course materials to show you exactly how to make money. Some of the people pitching these ideas though books, websites and infomercials were able to update their shtick to change with the medium, but the end result was always the same. Most people didn't make serious cash.  The initial description of how it works is done for free and isn't enough information to know how to do it. The real secrets are after you pay for the advanced course. Of course to really make them work you need the expensive coaching sessions.
"I was under the impression that all pilots actually do is take off and land. Once they're airborne, the computer takes over. It's usually described as ""99% utter boredom, and 1% sheer terror.""  Maybe a computer could land and take off too, but so much can go wrong at those crucial points and the stakes are so high that you need to have actual humans involved." "Any business, like any household, has items that are wasted. Unlike a household, a business does keep track of all items that are unsellable. Depending on the reason for the item being unsellable they are accounted for differently. Items that can be returned to the manufacturer are done so, and the business is given credit for that item. For the business the time spent processing, stocking and restocking that item, plus any time spent handling a return for that customer is harder to track. If they see the percentage of bad items is too large compared to sales they will want to address this with the manufacturer. Items that are spoiled by the business, which will include spoiled food items, will also be tracked. They will examine their choice of products, their procedures for those products and the quantities produced to try an minimize the spoilage. They don't just throw the items away, they keep track of the exact items and their worth. When they have to dispose of meat that has reached their ""sell by"" date they will actually scan the items into the computer.  In some cases products can be transformed into other products: bread into bread pudding; in other situations they are ""reduced for quick sale""; in other cases they are donated to a charity or food kitchen. All of this is also tracked. Of course any losses that the company can't recover by returning items to manufactures or repurposing will be reflected in the price of their items. Stores that can minimize their waste can offer lower prices." "What can I do to help him out, but at the same time protect myself from any potential scams? Find out why he can't do this himself.  Whether your relative is being sincere or not, if he owns both accounts then he should be able to transfer money between them by himself.  If you can find a way to solve that issue without involving your bank account, so much the better. Don't settle for ""something about authorized payees and expired cards.""  Get details, write them down.  If possible, get documents.  Then go to a bank or financial adviser you can trust and run those details by them to see what they have to say.  Even if there's no scam, if what he's trying to do is illegal (even if he doesn't realize it himself) then you want to know before you get involved.  You say you're willing to deal with ""other issues"" separately, but keep in mind that, even if there's no external scam here, those ""other issues"" could include hefty fees, censures on your own account, or jail time. Ask yourself: Does it make sense that this relative has an account overseas?  I don't have any overseas accounts, because I don't do business in other countries.  Is your relative a dual-citizen?  Does he travel a lot?  What country is the overseas account in?  How long has he had this account?  What bank is it with?  Where the money is going is just as important as how it gets there (ie: through your account.)  Arguably more so. Keep in mind that many scammers tell their marks not to share what's going on with anyone else.  (Because doing so increases the odds of someone telling them to snap out of it.)  It's entirely possible he's being scammed himself and just not telling you the whole story because the 419er is telling him to keep it quiet.  (Check out that link for more details on common scams that your relative may be unwittingly part of, btw.) Get as many details as possible about what he's doing and why.  If he's communicating with anyone else regarding this transfer, find out who.  If there are emails, ask his permission to read them and watch for anything suspicious (ie: people who can't spell their own name consistently, constant pressure to act quickly, etc.)" $230k. $230k. $230k.  And that's just per person. Funny how conservatives attack the Dems for 'wasteful' spending on such frivolities such as social welfare and public health but approve this wasteful use of state funds to deliver a program of minimal overall benefit to The Wisconsin economy. "&gt; this should 100% be an opt-in  That goes for all this tracking stuff: if it is clear opt-in, it's fine.   The tricky part is that when we opt in we often tend to think, ""oh, they're using this to do X to do [some reasonable/benign/positive thing].""   Once you've agreed, though, they can use it for whatever they want, often in ways that you'd never even imagine. :(" If I had a business and was able to claim a feature, I would. It's simple marketing. If in fact, opting out helped your score, the site would promote that feature.  Soft pulls for prescreened offers are not counted. No more than my constant peek at my score through Credit Karma. Opt out, if you wish.  The benefit of course is less mail, which saves trees. Less risk of identity theft, someone can take the application and try to forge from there. Less risk of an infected paper cut opening this mail (don't ask.) I am a compulsive mail shredder, so I peek and these and shred. A year ago I received an offer of $30,000 zero interest, max transfer fee $50. I sent the entire sum to my 5% mortgage. Now I refinanced and paying that back. It saved me $1500 over the year. Too much trouble for some, but how long does it take to make $1500? For 40% of this country's families, that's a week's pay. The monthly extra bill didn't bother me. This last paragraph is an anecdote, not so much addressing question. I did that first. The 'common sense' in it is that they want the maximum money from you while still suggesting to a quick read that you get away free. Their target is not to make you happy, but to make money of you. Multilevel marketing does not mean it's a scam.  MLM is one of a number of legitimate ways to run the sales leg of a business.  It's also one of the fairest: you get paid for the business you bring back to the company, period.  If you can keep a lot of referral salespeople working their butts off, great for you, you should reap the benefits for your effort.  How many salaried jobs give you this kind of incentive? If you have reservations, that's fine, but also be prepared to have someone smile and nod back at you. The things I'd check: