There’s a particular type of online offer that’s become increasingly common, especially on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. It’s often marketed to women, mums, or people who are clearly struggling financially. The promise is simple and seductive: buy one digital product, then resell it and make daily income.
At first glance, it looks like a business. In reality, it’s something much more fragile.
What these schemes are really selling
These offers usually revolve around a single PDF or course. When you buy it, you’re given resale rights and encouraged to rebrand and sell the exact same product to someone else. The product itself typically teaches you how to sell… the product.
That circular structure is the core problem.
A genuine business sells something people actually want or need. These schemes rely almost entirely on new people being convinced to buy in, not on real customer demand. Once interest slows or the market becomes saturated, income disappears.
Why the screenshots don’t prove what they claim
Promotional posts are often full of screenshots: first sales, small payments coming in, messages saying “I made my first sale!” These are designed to create urgency and hope.
What they don’t show is what happens weeks or months later.
Early sellers may make money briefly, but later buyers are competing against thousands of people selling the same thing, with the same claims, often using identical templates. Most will never recoup what they spent, let alone earn consistently.
The emotional targeting is the uncomfortable part
These schemes are frequently aimed at people who are:
- financially anxious
- burned out
- caring for children or family
- desperate for flexibility
Language like “no posting every day”, “one system”, “sales on autopilot”, and “money while you sleep” is not accidental. It’s designed to bypass healthy scepticism and appeal to exhaustion.
That doesn’t make buyers foolish. It makes them human.
Is it illegal?
Selling a digital product with resale rights is not automatically illegal. However, there is a big difference between something being technically allowed and something being honest or ethical.
When income potential is heavily implied, risks are downplayed, and the business depends almost entirely on recruiting new sellers, the line becomes very thin.
Why this isn’t a sustainable way to make money
A real digital business teaches skills you can use anywhere: writing, marketing, SEO, customer research, and product development. These schemes teach one thing only: how to sell the scheme itself.
When the product has no life outside its own resale loop, it’s not a business. It’s churn.
A kinder alternative
If you’re looking to earn online, there are slower, more boring, more honest ways to do it. They don’t promise overnight success, but they also don’t collapse once the hype moves on.
Anything worth building takes time. Anyone telling you otherwise is usually selling you something.
Final thoughts
If an opportunity only works when more people buy into the same opportunity, it deserves careful questioning. Especially when it’s marketed to people who can least afford to lose money.
Hope should never be a product.
