{"about":{"site":"https://codewithpapers.app","non_affiliation":"Code with Papers and Syntology are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Papers with Code, Meta, or the pwc-archive mirror.","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","licence_url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode","attribution":"https://codewithpapers.app/attribution","modified":"archive material modified by Syntology; see the attribution page"},"url":"/paper/investigating-the-concentration-of-high-yield","title":"Investigating the concentration of High Yield Investment Programs in the United Kingdom","arxiv_id":"2205.08569","date":"2022-04-21","proceeding":null,"authors":["Sharad Agarwal","Marie Vasek"],"abstract":"Ponzi schemes that offer absurdly high rates of return by relying on more and more people paying into the scheme have been documented since at least the mid-1800s. Ponzi schemes have shifted online in the Internet age, and some are re-branded as HYIPs or High Yield Investment Programs. This paper focuses on understanding HYIPs' continuous presence and presents various possible reasons behind their existence in today's world. A look into the countries where these schemes purport to exist, we find that 62.89% of all collected HYIPs claim to be in the United Kingdom (UK), and a further 55.56% are officially registered in the UK as a 'limited company' with a registration number provided by the UK Companies House, a UK agency that registers companies. We investigate other factors influencing these schemes, including the HYIPs' social media platforms and payment processors. The lifetime of the HYIPs helps to understand the success/failure of the investment schemes and helps indicate the schemes that could attract more investors. Using Cox proportional regression analysis, we find that having a valid UK address significantly affects the lifetime of an HYIP.","url_abs":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.08569v1","url_pdf":"https://arxiv.org/pdf/2205.08569v1.pdf","source":{"archive":"pwc-archive (Hugging Face), CC BY-SA 4.0","snapshot":"2025-07-28","licence_url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode","row_kind":"abstracts"},"code_links":[{"paper_slug":"investigating-the-concentration-of-high-yield","repo_url":"https://github.com/sharad1126/Investigating-the-concentration-of-HYIPS-in-the-UK","is_official":1,"mentioned_in_paper":0,"mentioned_in_github":1,"framework":"none","reach":null}],"tasks":[{"task_slug":null,"task_name":"valid"}],"methods":[],"datasets_introduced":[],"methods_introduced":[],"results":[],"syntology":{"syntology_url":null,"atlas_url":null,"mcp":null,"developers":"https://syntology.ai/developers"},"arxiv_metadata":null,"syntology_extracted_results":null}