High Yield Investment Programs (HYIPs) are fraudulent investment schemes that purport to provide unusually high returns on investment. HYIPs often advertise returns of over 100% per year to lure victims and regularly use new investors' money to pay off old investors.

Not to be confused with legitimate high-yield bond investments, which offer interest rates higher than the investment rate. HYIPs are Ponzi schemes, and the organizers aim to steal the money invested. In a Ponzi scheme, money from new investors is taken to pay returns to established investors.

The money is not invested and no actual underlying return is earned, the new money is simply used to pay people who entered the scam earlier than they did. Typically, the operator will set up a website to lure unsuspecting investors, promising very high returns but remaining unclear about the management of the underlying investment funds, how the money is invested, or where the funds are located.