Rents are rising and inflation has the whole country by the throat. The days of dollar slice pizza or cheap coffee are no more. The $2 dollar grilled cheese at my deli is now $3, and good luck finding a bacon egg & cheese for under $5 in NYC anymore.
As a broke college student and new intern, I’ve had to get my hustle on in 2023 and put together some techniques for getting free stuff or making some easy extra bread. The rich and powerful take advantage of the system all the time, so why shouldn’t we as everyday people do the same?
Luckily, I’ve got you covered and am here to give you a couple of techniques for finessing the system.
DUMBASS DISCLAIMER: Most of these are unethical and/or illegal. If you decide to indulge in any, you’re on your own.
Cheap Spotify Premium
Tired of paying for Spotify Premium or listening to Soundcloud ads? What if I told you for $5, you can hop on someone’s random family plan?
Step 1: Go to Spotify Upgrade. There are a lot of other similar sites, and if you look up “Spotify Upgrader” you can find other options. This is just the one I have used, and I have been on the same family plan for about two years now.
Step 2: Purchase an activation key. You can use a card or Bitcoin (if you’re that guy).
Step 3: Then follow the directions on the website to upgrade your account.
Risk: 0
Reward: 10
Class Action Lawsuits
Class action lawsuits are when large corporations get sued by a bunch of people at once and have to fork up a large sum of money to that group. Anyone who claims they were affected by the lawsuit can get a portion of it. These large corporations have millions of dollars, so why not try and reach your tiny hand into the pot and grab some?
Step 1: Go to a class action lawsuit website
Step 2: Find a settlement with no proof required.
Step 3: Find the claim website or a form. It might take a sec to look through all the info.
Step 4: Fill out a claim, but make it realistic. Don’t put that you bought 100 bottles of defective baby formula, for example.
Step 5: Sit and wait for the money to arrive. It usually takes a few months for the checks to mail.
The amount of money you could make varies. It could either be 30 cents or $40. I’ve seen people get checks for $300 sometimes.
Risk: 2
Reward: 7.5
Free Laundry
Rent prices are already too high as it is, so why pay for the coin-op laundry machines in your own building on top of that?
Step 1: If you have a coin-op laundry unit in your building, look up your the washer/dryer model # online and order a key for it. Most products that are manufactured with locks are all keyed the same by model.
Step 2: With the key you can access the machine’s “maintenance mode” which is basically a menu that lets you change the prices. The maintenance menu also lets you start the machine without putting money in. You can find out how to put your machine in “maintenance mode” in the manual of your machine. You can usually find that for free online.
Also, check the quarter lockbox. Sometimes they forget to lock them back up.
Risk: 1
Reward: 10
Lost and Found
If you need an iPhone charger or pair of headphones/earbuds, go to any lost and found such as a university, bar/club, museum, or any place with a lost and found.
Tell them you lost your *insert generic brand name* item. They’ll most likely have an item for you to take. A lot of bars also have phones lying around that people left and never claimed. Go in and tell the bartender that you lost your phone, and they will show you the phones that they have behind the bar. You can either claim one as your own, or note what one looks like and have a friend go in the next day and say they lost his *phone description* and they’ll give it to them.
Risk: 5
Reward: 8.5
Free Food from Starbucks (or any other food chain):
I’ll let you in on a little secret: large chain corporations that still have customer service numbers offer refunds over the phone. It’s a lot easier to get money back than you think, even if you never actually spent it in the first place.
This works for chat customer service as well, if you’re able to talk with a real person the easier it is. Complain about the food, your experience, or any excuse you can think of to get a gift card or refund. This method will work for most food places and delivery companies.
Ex: Starbucks
Step 1: Lookup the address of any Starbucks and make a Starbucks account
Step 2: Call Starbucks’ customer service at 1(800)782-7282 and say you went through the drive through or picked up in store and something was wrong with your order i.e. the food was cold, the drink was bad, but you were too far to go back. Make sure to sound really disappointed.
Script: Hi, I unfortunately have a complaint to make. Earlier today I order a _____ and it was _______ I’m really disappointed because I was ___________.
Step 3: Ask for a refund.
Step 4: They will apply a refund directly to your account or they will send you a gift card, usually around $10-15.
Step 5: Rinse and repeat.
Risk: 0
Reward: 9
Fake Raffle
Take advantage of looking young and innocent while you can. This method only really works if you are still in high school, or if you have a crazy babyface.
What you need to do is create a fake fundraising raffle for your school – the more realistic, the more money you will get, and the easier it will be.
Step 1: Design and print out a fake raffle contest for a high school in your area, but maybe don’t do the one you actually attend.
Step 2: Make up some fake prizes, extra points if you have photos and descriptions for each of them.
Step 3: Make a spreadsheet for taking down people’s info and then get some raffle tickets, a clipboard, and a pen. You can even ask to see their ID to seem more official.
Step 4: Go door to door to see if people want to enter your raffle for a chance to win a prize. You can make up some reason for why you are raising money, but I’ll let you use your imagination for that part.
Step 5: Go around until you get tired or get enough money.
Risk: 7
Reward: 10
If you are inspired and want to continue down this path of Scam Artistry check out these tools:
Cheap Stock Images
Email Bomber
Fake Receipt
Virtual Card
Fake Personal Info
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April 6, 2023 3:35 pm
the pick poscket character looks like he is rocking some jnco’s.
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July 4, 2024 7:39 am
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