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High yield investments are things that produce a yield of more than 2 percent per month. You can find some good mutual funds that produce 30% or higher in any given year, and they would fit the description of a high yield investment.

Unfortunately, mutual funds will never produce these stellar results consistently. Their good performance will cause a flood of money to come knocking on their door, and with a lot more money, it becomes harder to produce big returns.

Online, there are thousands of places that offer high yield investments. As you might expect, the vast majority are scams - simple ponzis set up to look like elaborate operations.

Once you have enough experience with high yield investments, you can usually spot the scams with relative ease, but even the best people still get caught in elaborate scams.

Here are the things professional investors look for when looking into high yield investments:

Fixed returns. If a program guarantees a time-based return (2% per day, for instance), then it is almost certainly a scam. No one has a crystal ball, and in the high yield community, uncertainty is the major force that prevails. So any one skilled at foreign exchange trading or options trading would never predict they would make 2% each and every day.

No contact information. The high yield investments that are real will always let you know who is behind it, and what they do. In the normal investment world, there is a prospectus for each offering, which describes what the venture is about, and how they make money. A real high yield investment would always give you the name and resum* for the principal people behind the operation. If you don't get a name, phone number and address, it is a scam.

No registration. All high yield investments will create profit, and be subject to taxation by some government somewhere in the world. If the persons offering a high yield investment have not bothered to register the venture, then it is most certainly a scam.

No Contract. The high yield investments that promise great things should put things into writing, and have you agree to the terms before they begin to earn you an income. If you find a high yield investment that does not require you to sign a contract, you can be sure they will disappear eventually - along with your money.

The SEC publishes a short description of what to look for, and it is well worth a minute to review it. It is at http://www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/investorfraud.htm

You should be aware that investor fraud is at an all-time high, and if you ever find yourself a victim of financial fraud, there is very little chance you will ever see your money again. Governments around the world are overwhelmed by the scams and victim complaints that pour in daily, so the best you can do is file a report, and be happy knowing you reported it.