is this a scam

It's (at best!) a pyramid scam:

"...
How do I make a deposit?
To make a deposit you must first become a member of HyipEmpire. Once you are signed up, you can make your first deposit. All deposits must be made through the Member Area.

After I make withdrawal request, when will funds be available on my e-currency account? (not real money, you notice!)
Right after you make withdrawal.

Is there any referrals profit ?
Yes , We offer you a profitable referral program which pays you 0.5% of the deposit made by people you refer everyday, paid to your HyipEmpire account instantly. You must be a HyipEmpire member to receive the referral payments. Log into your HyipEmpire account to find your referral link.

Do I get my principal back?
Sorry, no. If we were to offer the ability to withdraw the principal then that could hurt our program.Aroo! Aroo! Scam alert!

What is the minimum and maximum deposit?
The minimum deposit is 5 USD and There is no maximum. (I'm not surprised there's no maximum - you can't get your money back!)

...

Can I make an investment with another e-currency?
We only accept e-gold at this moment. (which by some strange coincidence, appears to be a related enterprise)

When will I get my first payment?
You will get it a day from the time you made your spend.

How long do you think your program will work?
We are optimistic about the future. !!!

..."

Rules of the game:
  • If it looks too good to be true, it is.
  • If it looks like a scam, it is.
  • If it looks like a scam that's too good to be true, run away!
 
Very entertaining, but also sad in a way. I always wonder with such things: isn't there some way of finding out who owns the website and/or who the money actually goes to? One would have thought that these people would live in fear of prosecution, no?
 
It's got to be a website registered in Russia, run by a Nigerian man, the office address taking you to a post box located in a derelict building in a very dodgy part of Budapest.

Or something similar...
 
Here's their whois entry:

Registration Service Provided By: HYIP EMPIRE
Contact: [email protected]
Abuse Desk Email Address: [email protected]

Domain Name: HYIPEMPIRE.COM

Registrant:
Hyip Empire
Mais Margosian ([email protected])
487 East Middlefield Road
Mountain View
CA,94043
US
Tel. +1.6504268821

Creation Date: 10-Dec-2004
Expiration Date: 10-Dec-2005

Domain servers in listed order:
50246.mercury.orderbox-dns.com
50246.venus.orderbox-dns.com
50246.earth.orderbox-dns.com
50246.mars.orderbox-dns.com


Administrative Contact:
Hyip Empire
Mais Margosian ([email protected])
487 East Middlefield Road
Mountain View
CA,94043
US
Tel. +1.6504268821

Technical Contact:
Hyip Empire
Mais Margosian ([email protected])
487 East Middlefield Road
Mountain View
CA,94043
US
Tel. +1.6504268821

Billing Contact:
Hyip Empire
Mais Margosian ([email protected])
487 East Middlefield Road
Mountain View
CA,94043
US
Tel. +1.6504268821

Status:ACTIVE


I did about a googling about Hyipempire and HYIP - holy sheep! There's thousands of these things out there. Even this hyip promotion site has hyipempire tagged as a scam.

There seems to be a whole little world out there revolving around these schemes/scams
 
The servers listed, orderbox-dns.com, belong to this bunch, which seems to be a generic hosting company, albeit with a load of spammers living there (may be a spam house, or might just be an innocent ISP):

Domain Name: ORDERBOX-DNS.COM

Registrant:
OrderBox-DNS
OrderBox-DNS ([email protected])
14781 Memorial Dr.
Suite # 792
Houston
TX,77079
US
Tel. +1.2482334072

Creation Date: 02-Jul-2004
Expiration Date: 02-Jul-2005

Domain servers in listed order:
mercury.orderbox-dns.com
venus.orderbox-dns.com
earth.orderbox-dns.com
mars.orderbox-dns.com


Administrative Contact:
OrderBox-DNS
OrderBox-DNS ([email protected])
14781 Memorial Dr.
Suite # 792
Houston
TX,77079
US
Tel. +1.2482334072

Technical Contact:
OrderBox-DNS
OrderBox-DNS ([email protected])
14781 Memorial Dr.
Suite # 792
Houston
TX,77079
US
Tel. +1.2482334072

Billing Contact:
OrderBox-DNS
OrderBox-DNS ([email protected])
14781 Memorial Dr.
Suite # 792
Houston
TX,77079
US
Tel. +1.2482334072

Status:ACTIVE
 
Top