Desperate People Share The Absolute Worst Thing They've Ever Done For Money

We've all been really broke at some point in time. It's probably happened after you went out and spent your entire pay-check on drinks in one night, or are back against the wall with debt that leaves you with close to nothing at the end of the month. Whatever the case, you'll need to make some money fast, because at the end of the day you still need to eat and pay your bills.

At this point, you're probably desperate and are willing to do whatever it takes to earn that extra coin. So desperate, you would take on some odd jobs or do something very, very unusual.

Here's what a few people had to do for cash after finding themselves in some horribly desperate situations.

Video Blocks

Don't forget to check the comment section below the article for more interesting stories!

#1 Not What I Thought

I was hurting for money so I took a job at what I first thought was a regular spa and then turned out to be much more. I was just hired for a receptionist job. It took a week before my boss approached me and pretty much just straight up asked how I'd feel about giving more than just regular massages to men.

I politely declined. I didn't quit straight away. It took a few weeks and several hundred disgusting phone calls, uncomfortable propositions and downright scary encounters with the most horrid men. It got to the point that most of the time the "clients" would request me as I was the youngest there by a mile and with an ever pushy boss, I finally took my leave and never went back. Every day was bad. It was the most soul destroying thing, EVER.

Myo Therapy College

#2 A Summer Of Hard Sells

I was a part of Vector Marketing, otherwise known as selling Cutco Knives for a summer.

For those that don't know, Vector Marketing is the sales branch of Cutco Knives, a very high brand of cutlery. Their employees are usually around the age of high school to college graduate, the kind who are desperate for a decent job with a decent income that's not retail/fast food. Your first few sales are by contacting people you know, friends and family, and sitting them down for a 30-60 minute presentation of how the knife brand is superior to whatever is in your client's drawer. Keep in mind, the knife sets are, at their cheapest, $300-$400. The standard set is about $1,000 and yes you are expected to sell down.

It's like being a used car salesman, only you come to the customer rather than the other way around. Not to mention as a sales associate you are required to ask your client whether you sold anything or not for numbers of their friends and family so you can try to sell knives to them as well.

By the end of the summer, I had made some decent money but I felt like a sleazebag.

The Odyssey Online

#3 Taking A Calculated Risk

During Freshman and Sophomore year of high school, the teachers in the math department used not only multiple choice tests but they all used the same tests. It was lazy and dumb but there you have it.

Anyhow, this was in the age where the TI-83 reigned supreme and the internet was still catching on. I discovered a program online that would let me download programs from my computer into the calculator to make programming faster, but I realized that you could just put in text files.

I started out just downloading notes, formulae, etc into my calculator and using them as a crib sheet but then I got even more clever. I could sell these digital crib sheets to everyone for $5 per test and make a fortune. We had weekly quizzes and monthly tests, quizzes were $2 per crib and tests were $5 and it got to the point where I was selling upwards of 300 cribs per week.

Then I realized something: the file for answers to a multiple choice test would just be a 10 or 15 digit hex key or a really big number. By this time I had friends working distribution for me so we realized that all you would have to do would convert the hex to a base 10 and then it would just look like a ridiculously long nonsense number. I had two buddies in 1st-period math so we would compare our keys after the test, go with our best, and then start distributing in the halls and sell those like hotcakes.

We sold to the good students, we sold to the slackers, and we could even sell to kids who didn't have calculators. Having a random number scrawled on your arm became standard and I don't know what the teachers ever thought about the consistency in test taking.

Those two years my network and I probably made about $500 per month just selling our knowledge and we walked the halls as gods among men.

Daily Mail

#4 Typing Away An Unlawful Act

I re-typed potentially incriminating documents "in my own words" so they would be covered by legal privilege and did not have to be turned over to the department of justice.

I did this all day for like 6 days in a row. This was a totally demoralizing way to start my career as a big firm attorney. The client was billed $350 an hour.

Pinterest

#5 Mass Marketing

I downloaded a list of about 2 million email addresses from a torrent site and posted on Craigslist trying to sell it to email marketers. I made about $200. The torrent with the emails was 3 years old, the person who bought it said it had under 5% success rate and his ISP apparently blacklisted him from ever using an email service again due to mass spam.

Pinterest

#6 A Quick Game Of "Bird"

At some camp I went to, this guy was there and he had his own little YouTube gig going on and he's handing out twenty dollar bills like no big deal as long as they do something he asks. He picks two random people (aka me and some tall dude) and he says we have to play "Bird." It's a game where PersonA sits down and tilts their head back, mouth open, and PersonB has to spit water down while standing way above them and if PersonA catches it, they both win.

No shame.

Gihs101

#7 That's How Politics Works

In a Model United Nations club, a kid representing some Middle Eastern country wanted to pass a resolution. Nobody liked him or signed it. He offered me a dollar to sign it even though it declared war on everyone. I signed it. I still didn't get my dollar.

Courant

#8 Theft At The School Yard

I'm in the yard outside of school. The glaring sun is making it hard to see the ball sailing in a high arch towards me, but I manage to catch it in my baseball glove. I can see a man approaching, hands in his pockets, taking a long detour in an attempt to look inconspicuous.

"I understand you're a man who knows how to get things." He speaks out of the corner of his mouth, looking the other way.

"I'm known to locate certain things from time to time." I throw the ball back across the yard.

"There's this kid in our class, Shaun. He has a first edition holographic Charizard. I want it." The excitement in his voice is palpable.

"That's dark work, my friend. Word gets out, nobody will want to play with you anymore."

"I've been told you can be very discrete."

"So they say. It's going to cost you though." I spit on the ground, hoping against hope that he will change his mind, that he won't have the money.

"This should cover it." He slips a ten in my hand and stalks off without another word.

No matter how many jobs you do, it never gets any easier. I'm chewing on my nail, eyes fixed on the clock, barely hearing a word the teacher is saying.

"C'mon, c'mon..." The seconds tick away slowly until finally, I hear it. The fire alarm screeches and everyone panics. People scream and run around, jump on their desks and the teacher is screaming loudest of all, trying to catch her students attention.

"Calm down and follow me, we need to go outside, now! Leave everything and just go!" I drop behind as people start to stream out of the classroom in a tumultuous, mutated imitation of a queue. I have my eyes on Shaun's Pikachu hat bobbing through the back of the crowd, slowly making their way outside. Right when we pass through the door I stride passed him with determined steps, bumping into his side as I went. A stack of cards is sent flying through the air, scattering like snowflakes across the ground. Of course, he wouldn't leave them for the fire, not his precious cards.

"I'm sorry, that was my bad." I apologize, dropping to my knees along with a few of the closest students and picking up the cards.

"Hurry up back there!" The teacher shouts from the front of the pack.

"Thanks," Shaun mutters as I hand him the last few cards and we all hurry to catch up with the rest. I can feel the reassuring weight of a single card propped up in my sleeve. Smoothly, soundlessly, I slip it out and press it into the hand of a boy in front of me.

"May God have mercy on us both." I whisper in his ear.

Spielwarenmesse

#9 Class Doesn't Come Cheap

I taught a class at a for-profit college.

I was unemployed for a month or so and was offered an adjunct position with the college. I was teaching entry level students study and computer skills.

There is no admissions vetting process. Students who were not ready to learn were in the class. I don't mean to sound snobbish, but they were flat out disruptive. It was so bad that I started charging for swear words. There were threats on test days even.

These schools prey on kids. An Associates Degree from a non-accredited college costing $40,000? You can get a bachelors at a reputable state school for that cost and come out of it with a real skill: accounting, chemistry, teaching, etc... You can do it for much less by supplementing community college classes. In fact, my MBA from a well-known university was cheaper. I feel terrible for anyone who was well-intentioned but is saddled with this type of debt.

I sold out for a few bucks and gained no experience in the process.

College Magazine

#10 A Dirty Job, But Somebody Has To Do It

I used to help my dad's friend clean cars on weekends. He did the exterior, I did the interior. One day I go inside a car and it looks like it has been snowing. In some places, it was about 5cm's thick, but it was completely through the whole car. I had no idea what it could be, so I am cleaning and cleaning, doing a very thorough job. When I am finally done, the owner appears. He is a larger guy and covered in scaley flakes of skin all over his body. I was inhaling that stuff. I vomited into the gutter and decided that this was the worst thing I had ever done for money.

Scoopon

#11 $100 Worth of Pain

I let my friend zap me with a taser for $20. He upped it to $100 if I would let him do it until the battery died. I accepted.

YouTube

#12 Course Work Done for $200

I finished someone's college-level algebra online course for $200 and a six-pack. I then used the money to pay off my credit card debt. I'm a little vanilla.

#13 Jealous Money

I was 15, and my mom's friend needed help having her house cleaned and fixed up. I was a nice kid with nothing better to do and she offered to pay. It involved painting and stuff as well, which I enjoyed. Her daughter wasn't really the best person (we went to high school together), and part of the fixing that needed to be done were holes in the wall she punched and threw things at out of rage. She had gone to live with her father as a result of her behavior.

She had all these expensive clothes and jewelry, and being that I hated her and I really needed money since I was saving up for college and a car, I'd occasionally steal the stuff and put it in a backpack full of my "school stuff." (it was practically empty before I'd pack it with all the clothes). My friend's brother helped me sell the stuff on eBay and we split the profit 75-25. We made hundreds of dollars. No one ever suspected it was me, but obviously, they ended up discovering all the stuff was lost. I didn't think it all the way through when I was doing it and realized later that it was the mother's money that bought all that stuff, and I was technically just stealing from her. I work in retail currently, and she comes in sometimes. I always give her the employee discount out of guilt.

iStock Photo

#14 Too Much Free Time

I created a lot of seriously annoying flash banners, the kind that pop out and covers everything and makes noise when you accidentally roll your cursor over them. I'm not proud of it.

The Verge

#15 She Played Me

Once when I was 16 I really wanted to take this girl out to a Jonas Brothers concert. She promised that if I got tickets she would give me a good time in the bathroom while they played Lovebug, so I was willing to do whatever it took. I ended up smuggling some adult substances from Canada into the states and then she told me she was "repledging her purity to God" and ditched me as soon as the show started.

Video Blocks

#16 Strong Stomach

I drank a 21oz. cup of garbage water once. (I worked at a restaurant, every night, we'd spray out the garbage bins in the kitchen, the resulting water filth was my drink).

#17 Too Reliable

I worked retail. I worked for months with my 2 days off split, odd schedules, all for 9 an hour. That really makes working 35 hours a week seem like it consumes your whole life. It did not help that every customer was so annoying, and most of the employees were lazy. I would do 2x the work of those people. In a store where they cut hours like crazy, I would ask if I could be brought down to around 20 for a while.

I was one of the employees they would not cut because I got stuff done and sold well. The one week they granted the request I did get cut to 22, but they split them up over 6 days of 3 and 4-hour shifts, and guess who was expected to stay if one of the lazy people called out? I've left since then. It's not worth it when I have the means to go back and get my degree.

Pinterest

#18 So YOU Were The One

I was a telemarketer for about a day. That stuff stinks and I don't care if you are 'just doing your job.' You're not a nice person if you call people up, disturb them at home, and try to sell them things they don't need. It's really rude.

I'd rather wash dishes in a Mexican restaurant (which I have done) and is a job that almost anyone can get at any time.

Digital Trends

#19 Addicted

I got to deal with a WAY OLDER and VERY creepy girl, when I was underage, for Adderall. So not money, but I sold some of it.

Also stole 'adult' plants from my parents and sold it to friends. 100% profit.

I was a really dumb kid.

Study Breaks

#20 Thankless Job

I handed out flyers in Times Square.

It's like, getting rejected by the entirety of New York in under an hour - the worst being tourists who ask for directions and still refuse to just take a measly piece of high glossy paper that I know you're just going to throw away the second you make it to the next corner. I am 100% sure that I didn't influence one person to go to the show I was promoting, and 50% sure that those who did take a flyer did it out of pity.

I was supposed to do it for an entire week, but when I saw an elaborately dressed, holographic Charizard of a woman, Chicago promoter do an elaborate dance and still couldn't hand out a flyer, I realized me and my Wolverine hoodie had about a snowflake chance in Olivia Wilde's pants to hand out more than twenty.

So I went home, said I passed out sixty, and reevaluated my life. Never flyer again.

Elite Social Network

#21 Got Caught

I got suspended once for "bribing" a kid to drink a whole bottle of Pepto Bismol with... $1. I was mad.

YouTube

#22 Wrong Intentions

I used to work at this place at the mall called "Animal Zone" when I was in high school. I didn't know a lot about this place before I started working there and in fact, I never even applied. I was offered a job by the owner/manager. It seemed like a typical type of pet store really. It sold fish, small animals, and unfortunately dogs and cats. Now, I'll get to why that was horrifying in a second. I first have to explain the type of man my former boss was.

My former boss was a very large dude. He was probably in his late 40s and early 50s. He always wore dirty sweaters and did weird things like paint his nails. He was Italian as well with olive skin. He also scared my brother off the job by making some inappropriate comment about his waist. After my brother was gone he started making comments to me as well and inviting me to go to clubs with him. I always ignored it. This wasn't even the worst of it.

I had reached my breaking point around the time I started to learn how the store operates. Basically, we would get dogs in and some would seem healthy while others would not. I wasn't a vet but I could tell when some animals were different than others. When I brought this up to the owner he never paid much mind to it etc. It didn't seem like the animals meant anything to him and it sickened me. This on top of the fact that he was horrible with paying me.

After a few weeks of working there, I had decided I have to leave this place. We would have animals die there very often. We had sick dogs and cats in the back constantly that I would do my best to help but as a kid in high school, I didn't know much about dogs and illnesses with them. I treated them the best I could, kept them as clean and comfortable as possible and some of us contacted the APL and even news sources who actually came to the store!

Seeing dogs and cats die often with no respect for their lives combined with the realization that I wasn't going to be able to help them sickened me to the point of leaving. The owner at the time went into this rage at hearing this and violently punched a wall and told me to "Just get out then!!!" I am not a doctor but I am 100% sure this guy was a sociopath. The man's name? "Sam Mazola." This dude was also featured on an episode on Animal Planet regarding animals attacking. I should mention he had a huge collection of animals on his property from lions to bears to foxes. His bear actually KILLED another kid on his property after I had left.

Pawedu

#23 Underage Peddling

When I was 13 I started stealing my mom's old prescription pills. She never took her medications and also had lots leftover from previous surgeries. So I started selling the extras to make a little extra money for myself.

Before I knew it someone was telling me I had to meet this guy because if I really wanted to move my stuff, then he was the guy to talk to. He was some 30-year-old guy in a nice house. He basically used me as a runner for him, but he gave me a lovely cash bonus if I ever brought him a certain type of substance. Apparently, he was always looking for it, and that was something I took from my mom a lot.

It wasn't until years later that I realized how bad it was. This guy was using kids to sell a large number of prescription pills. He would tell us to always carry backpacks, never purses, no make up allowed ever and once or twice he told me to wear my hair up in ponytails. He knew that the younger we looked, the less likely we were to get searched.

I got jumped once and they took all my stuff. I had to go into random buildings and make transactions with creepy older people.

Flaunt

#24 Timing Is Everything

In December of 2006, my friend and I stole bracelets from a dollar store. We then went door to door selling them for ten dollars a piece for Aids Awareness month. We obtained over 200 dollars.

Elearn

#25 I Would Rather Not

I've dealt with substances before, but the worst thing I've ever done for money is asking a friend. Never ask friends for money. It just isn't right and can end up really badly.

Rooz Mareh

#26 The Jewels

#27 You Learn Later

#31 Sugar Baby

#32 How Was This Ever An Idea?

#33 Lick It

#34 Xbox Charity

#35 Xbox Charity

CMT

#36 Punch Out