The interesting thing is that the whole purpose of the concept of an HYIP is to give potential victims a plausible explanation as to where their impressive returns will come from. As it turns out, you don't even have to do that to convince people to send you money.

A few days ago I posted a link to a scam that Instagram has allowed to flourish, to the tune of 263,000 posts [1]. It didn't get any traction on here, but going through some of the listings speaks volumes about the about the psychology of scammers and their victims. In this case they simply tell victims that they are going to "flip" the money - whatever that means - and people are apparently sending them money in response. I was horrified to read one comment from a mother of 7 who said she had sent money meant for her electric bill to a different scammer, had lost it, and was hoping that the person operating the account she was commenting on was legitimate. He responded in the comments, apologizing for that other rogue, and assuring her that he was legitimate and that she should contact him ASAP to begin a "cash flip".

Apparently these HYIP folks are thinking too much.

[1] https://instagram.com/explore/tags/flipcash/

(For the record I reported many of these accounts to Instagram the other day, and as near as I can tell none of them have been deleted)