What's the craziest way you've made money ?

At start of 2020 was transitioning to a new job. Got FnF of 1.3L from prev. job in March of that year.

Unwittingly YOLOed all of it into crypto (ETH, MATIC, UNI). Over the next year it grew to ~85L. Withdrew all, paid taxes and put the lumpsum ~50L in mutual funds and FDs on dad's advice. Not gonna get lucky like that ever again.

Pretty sure mine is v interesting, Class 9, Jio just got released, there was hype all around and long queues outside phone shops for getting SIM Cards. But you could only get one if you had 7-8 apps installed and then it’ll give you a barcode. Most middle class uncles didn’t know how to do that. First I generated barcodes on my phone(rooted and could change IMEI) and sell for 30rs. Raised to 50rs, anyone would give it happily. Made 5k, realised a huge market, made a bot that generated barcodes, took a screenshot and saved, used to sell them in the local mobile shops. Each barcode 40rs, demand was still there and I made money because the sellers would get bonus to complete selling targets. People from south delhi used to come to our area to buy Jio sims. I got known around the area, kind of some regional wholesaler contacted me and I sold around 30k barcodes each over 20rs. Ended up making around 8L. Interesting times back then.

Took supari for executing assignments

When bitcoin mania was high, I noticed people are busy with piddly amount in zebpay, unocoin etc and happy with itsy bitsy profits. I ignored initially. But suddenly I realised the price of crypto coin in US, UK is cheaper than India. As crypto is decentralised, I use to buy coins in US and UK exchanges in $ or € based on Forex value against ₹ and sell them back in Indian exchanges. But I don't have any foreign bank accounts so I used credit cards to buy the coins in foreign exchnages like cex.io and sell in koinex etc Indian exchanges. I used get reward points also which would lower conversion charges and thus increasing profits. Rinse and repeat. I use to buy Ripple, Etherium as I get large quantity compared to bitcoin.

One day Central FM in parliamentary budget announced dealing with crypto is illegal. So I stopped there. Eventually crypto lost its shine and almost all Indian exchanges are shut down now.

I enjoy finance and investments. I'm a licensed insurance advisor and NISM certified mutual fund distributor. I feel funny when I think about those crypto episodes now.

Damn, was hoping for someone to mention only fans here… xD