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Passive Income Autopsy

Every income claim deserves a cause of death.

We read the disclosures nobody reads.Then we published our own.Revenue to date: $0.

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We keep only your address, to send new autopsies. Leave any time: privacy.

Income Facts

Claim:
Day trading for a living is learnable by most people.
Population:
Every person who began day trading Brazilian equity futures, 2013 to 2015
Persisted 300+ sessions and lost money
97%
Earned more than the Brazilian minimum wage
1.1%
Out-earned a bank teller
0.4%
Source:
SSRN 3423101

Verdict: Busted

The whole site on one napkin

A guru's napkin promises $10K a day. Then we read the documents. 1 min 45 s, sound on, captions in the player.

Read the narration

Okay. Ten thousand dollars. Every single day. Passive. Starting right now.

Here's the plan. Step one: buy my course. Step two: something happens. Step three: yacht. It's written on a napkin, so you know it's legit.

Now let's do the one thing the napkin never does. Read the documents.

Day trading for a living. A study tracked every new day trader in Brazil's futures market. Of the ones who stuck it out past three hundred sessions, ninety-seven percent lost money.

Print-on-demand. Etsy's own filings work out to about a hundred and fifty-six dollars a month per active seller. Before Etsy takes its cut.

And the big one. An FTC complaint says the trainings promised forty thousand dollars a year. It puts the median bonus at a hundred and thirty-nine. Those are allegations, not findings. So we stamp it open, and we say so.

So let's check the original napkin. Scentsy publishes its own median: four hundred sixty-six dollars and fifty-six cents. For the whole year. At that rate, one day of ten K takes twenty-one years. Close enough.

In fairness, here's our napkin. Revenue to date: zero dollars. No ads yet. No affiliate links. And no course, ever. The day we sell you a method is the day we become our own next autopsy.

Passive Income Autopsy. Every income claim deserves a cause of death. Bring us your napkin.

Pitch:
$10K a day, starting now
Runtime:
1 min 45 s

Read against the case files

Our own napkin

Voice: an AI clone of the operator's own voice. Drawing: code, no stock footage.

What the training promised

Amway-approved recruiting presentations told prospects that a team of 25 to 48 IBOs meant earnings of about $40,000 a year. That is how the FTC and the State of Washington describe them in their complaint.

The same complaint puts the median total bonuses before expenses in 2023 at $139. Fewer than 1,600 IBOs out of more than 241,000 reached $40,000. Nothing is proven or admitted and no judge has signed the order, so the stamp says Open.

AI illustration of a hotel ballroom recruiting seminar seen from the back of the room, hands raised, a speaker at a podium

Earnings of about $40,000 a year

“it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when”

Recruiting presentations, as described and quoted in the FTC complaint

AI illustration

Case 018

Population:
More than 241,000 Amway Independent Business Owners in 2023

Amount per participant

Median total bonuses before expenses, 2023, alleged
$139

Across the case

Reached $40,000 or more in 2023, as alleged
fewer than 1,600
Stipulated judgments, not yet entered by a judge
$225,000,000
Source:
Case No. 2:26-cv-03474

Open: nothing here has been proven or decided.

Verdict: Open

Four more pitches and their labels

The promise on the left comes from the case file. The label on the right is built from the same documents, with the verdict they support.

Case 020The Homepage Said $548,345. The Same Table Says $315,850 for All 59 Studios.

AI illustration of a new martial arts franchise studio at golden hour, empty mats and a wall of trophies

Average 2021 gross sales: $548,345

The franchise homepage figure, as quoted in the FTC complaint

AI illustration

Case 020

Population:
59 Premier Martial Arts studios open the whole 2021 fiscal year
All 59 studios, average 2021 gross sales
$315,850
Top 15 studios, average 2021 gross sales
$548,345
Proposed settlement, not signed by a judge
$1.85 million
Source:
3:26-cv-00487

Open: nothing here has been proven or decided.

Verdict: Open

Case 00613 Cents on the Dollar: Inside a $22M 'Recurring Passive Income' Mining Pitch

AI illustration of a home office at night with a glowing crypto mining rig and a city skyline

Recurring passive income

“Once your account is connected you just sit back and allow funds to be mined and sent to your account.”

Marketing language quoted in the SEC complaint

AI illustration

Case 006

Population:
More than 380 Mining Automatic investors, as alleged by the SEC
Share spent on actual mining, as alleged
13%
Raised, approximately, as alleged by the SEC
$22 million
Guaranteed monthly minimum, per marketing in complaint
3% monthly
Source:
lr-26590

Open: nothing here has been proven or decided.

Verdict: Open

Case 016The Licences That Made the Loans Were Revoked in 2014. The Notes Kept Selling Until 2025.

AI illustration of a private lending office with a stack of promissory notes tied with ribbon

A guaranteed return, paid by the borrowers

“Your money funds our lending business, and your guaranteed return comes out of what the borrowers pay back.”

The promise as the case file states it

AI illustration

Case 016

Population:
Approximately 204 victims of Ideal Financial, per DOJ
Losses to victims, per DOJ after the guilty plea
$10,930,940
Wire fraud counts in the guilty plea
five counts
Year the state revoked the lending licences
2014

Busted: the documents contradict the claim.

Verdict: Busted

Case 021The $35 Million Is Not in the Document. Both Numbers That Are Say "Deemed Satisfied."

AI illustration of a penthouse bedroom at sunrise with a phone glowing on the nightstand

Sleep to earn, up to 17% per year

“you don't have to do anything, you just go to sleep, and every Monday we pay you yield.”

Quoted in the New York Attorney General complaint

AI illustration

Case 021

Scope:
New York's civil case against Celsius founder Alex Mashinsky
Prison sentence after his guilty plea
144 months
Yield Celsius advertised, as alleged
up to 17% per year
Announced by the AG, absent from the stipulation
$35 million
Source:
Index No. 450040/2023

Busted: the documents contradict the claim.

Verdict: Busted

Sometimes the label agrees

“Independent Scentsy Consultants earn between 10% and 36% commissions and bonuses on personal sales”

The company's own join page

Case 013

Population:
59,329 US Consultants with Scentsy for all 12 months of 2024
Median annual commissions, gross, 2024
$466.56
Average annual commissions, gross, 2024
$1,553.53
Source:
Compensation and Income Disclosure

Confirmed: the documents bear the claim out.

Verdict: Confirmed

A Confirmed stamp is earned the same way as a Busted one: by reading the document. Today 10 of the 23 cases on file are stamped Open, because nothing in them has been decided yet.

No pitch on file.

We sell nothing. Any change to how this site makes money is recorded, with a date, on how we make money.

Our own label

Site:
Passive Income Autopsy
Revenue to date
$0
Ads
0
Affiliate links
0
Sponsorships
0
Products
0
Courses, coaching, income products
Never
Source:
How we make money, last updated

Thanks. Your address is on the list for the next autopsy.

We keep only your address, to send new autopsies. Leave any time: privacy.

All 23 cases

Show
  1. Case 023That the earnings table on a company's income disclosure statement tells you what a typical participant earns.about 47,000Earned money in a typical month, the group the table describesInconclusive
  2. Case 022That there was no way to tell in advance. It is the most common thing said after a passive-income vehicle collapses, usually by people with a real grievance, and this site has now published 21 autopsies against which it can be tested.13%Share of a $22 million raise that reached actual mining, allegedInconclusive
  3. Case 021That depositing cryptocurrency into Celsius's Earn Interest Accounts was a way to earn a high yield without doing anything and without taking real risk. The original complaint alleges Mashinsky described the model as "sleep to earn", and quotes him: "you don't have to do anything, you just go to sleep, and every Monday we pay you yield." It alleges Celsius advertised yields "up to 17% per year".up to 17% per yearYield Celsius advertised, as allegedBusted
  4. Case 020That a prospective Premier Martial Arts franchisee reading the franchise homepage was looking at what an average PMA studio grosses. The Federal Trade Commission alleges the homepage carried "average 2021 gross sales" of $548,345 from 2022 until at least 24 August 2026.$548,345Top 15 studios, average 2021 gross salesOpen
  5. Case 019That PlanNet Marketing's 2025 Income Disclosure Statement works as what the company's own compliance team calls "a strong marketing tool", because it shows the average Rep earning $38.15 and "a small amount of extra effort" lifting that to $752.71.92.52%Share of active reps in the entry Rep rankBusted
  6. Case 018“IBOs who build a team of 25 to 48 IBOs will have 'earnings' of about $40,000 a year.”about $40,000 a yearYearly earnings in the presentations, as allegedOpen
  7. Case 017“Put in $24,000, take 25% a year with compound interest, and in ten years you have $1,000,000 and can retire on $250,000 a year.”$16 millionSold to investors, at least, as alleged by the SECOpen
  8. Case 016“Your money funds our lending business, and your guaranteed return comes out of what the borrowers pay back.”$10,930,940Losses to victims, per DOJ after the guilty pleaBusted
  9. Case 015“Buy into the companies everyone will want at IPO, at market prices, before the market can.”$450 millionDrawn in from customers, as alleged by DOJOpen
  10. Case 014That buying into Location Ventures and its URBIN affiliate was — in the SEC's own phrasing, not ours — a set of "passive investment opportunities" in South Florida real estate: capital in, a share of the development profit out, none of the developing.2 of 37Counts he pleaded guilty to, of the indictmentOpen
  11. Case 013That you can find out, before you sign anything, what a typical Scentsy Consultant is actually paid — because the company publishes the figure itself.$466.56Median annual commissions, gross, 2024Confirmed
  12. Case 012That the Botanic compensation plan, with its published bonus ladder running from $500 to $50,000, describes an earning opportunity a prospect can evaluate.$50,000Top one-time Rank Achievement Bonus in the planInconclusive
  13. Case 011That money placed with Capital Funding ASAP LLC would fund short-term loans to small businesses and pay a fixed return of 22% to 53% on a one-year investment, or 9% to 10% over two to three months, with the principal guaranteed and, for some investors, secured by collateral.$47 millionRaised, at least, as alleged by the SECOpen
  14. Case 010That placing money with Goliath Ventures through a "Joint Venture Agreement" would generate "ongoing passive income" from crypto liquidity pools, at 3% to 10% a month, with the principal guaranteed to come back.$425 millionRaised from over 1,300 investors, as alleged by the SECOpen
  15. Case 009That a real estate sponsor had "grown their business, protected the entirety of the principal, and never missed a distribution.$5.6 millionFund 14 raised from 53 investors, per the orderOpen
  16. Case 008“Copy the EXACT system hundreds of my students use to make $1k to $3k a month in passive income.”$1k to $3k a monthMonthly passive income the CEO promisedInconclusive
  17. Case 007“Real estate done for you — put money in, collect the rent, do none of the work.”$152 millionRaised, approximately, as alleged by the SECOpen
  18. Case 006“Connect your account and crypto mining pays you recurring passive income.”$22 millionRaised, approximately, as alleged by the SECOpen
  19. Case 005We Sent 50 AI Agents to Find One Faceless Etsy Success Story50Research agents sent to find one qualifying shopInconclusive
  20. Case 004“Faceless print-on-demand stores are passive income.”$1,868Mean yearly sales per active seller, derivedBusted
  21. Case 003“Start a blog, earn passive income in months.”21 monthsAverage time to a blog's first dollar, self-reportedBusted
  22. Case 002“Day trading for a living is learnable by most people.”97%Persisted 300+ sessions and lost moneyBusted
  23. Case 001“MLM is a real path to passive income.”$1,000 or less per yearGross income of most participants, before expensesBusted

23 cases in this index.