A high-yield investment program (HYIP) is a type of Ponzi scheme, an investment scam that promises unsustainably high return on investment by paying previous investors with the money invested by new investors. Most of these scams work from anonymous offshore bases which make them hard to track down.
Simulation was creating using parts of 'Credibility Game' (Paulina Adamska, PJWSTK 2013) and 2nd version of 'Credibility Game' project (Adamska, Kowalik, PJWSTK 2014). Plus some of the HYIP code creating in cooperation with Grzegorz Kowalik (PJWSTK, 2014).
For code licence, please check LICENSE file.
The code is created to work with Repast Simphony 2.2 framework.
Repast License: The Repast suite software and documentation is licensed under a "New BSD" style license. Please note that Repast Simphony uses a variety of tools and third party external libraries each having its own compatible license, including software released under the Eclipse Public License, the Common Public License, the GNU Library General Public License and other licenses.
In the simulator we use a simulation model which would indicate the most effective strategies for HYIP owners to maximize their profit when running away. It also investigates the influence of investing in proper script and advertisement on HYIP’s financial results. The model is, to a large extent, based on real-life data, acquired from HYIP monitors and forums.
To investigate the phenomena of HYIPs (especially to analyse the strategies that HYIP owner can take to decide when run away with money), we designed a simulation which contains elements of evolution. After every generation of HYIPs, the effectiveness in terms of increasing balance account is verified and the best strategies are inherited by next generation.
Investor - A person (agent) considering investing his money into HYIPs
HYIP - High Yield Investment Program (producer)
Hyip offer - An investment offered by a HYIP, when accepted an agreement between the Investor and the HYIP
Investment - An ongoing investment, characterized by: duration (in days), interest (return in percentage)
Exit strategy - Heuristics which HYIPs assess to choose whether close themselve (run aways) or not
Parameters (most important are presented below)
generation_number - Number of generations
iteration_number - Number of iterations in a generation
inv_0 - Count of investors (part 1)
inv_1 - Count of investors (part 2)
inv_2 - Count of investors (part 3)
mutate_chance - Chances for enabling/disabling part of the exit-strategy
mutate_factor - By how much all exit-strategy values change after an iteration
hyip_population_size - Number of HYIPs in a simulation
hyip_*.csv outputs results, state of every HYIP per every tick hyip_*params.csv outputs params used
simulation_logs.txt outputs diagnostic data
/batch directory holds typical scenarios with proper parameters
run - repast simulation run number
tick - repast simulation tick number
generation - SUS generation number
iteration - SUS iteration number of the current generation
cash - HYIP account balance
Runned_Away - tells whether HYIP is active or inactive (closed)
Id - HYIP id number
Advert
Income - income after last tick
Count_Investments - number of open investments
Good_Looking
Total_Number_Of_Invests - how many times somebody invested in this HYIP and got payed
Use_Cash - is balance used on consideration on running away
Strategy_Cash - the amount for above
Use_Income - is income used on consideration on running away
Strategy_Income - the value for above
Use_Investor_Count - is number of investments made used on consideration on running away
Strategy_Investor_Count - the value for above
Use_Time - is HYIP age used on consideration on running away
Strategy_Time - the value for above
E_Use
P_Use
Strategy - string description of this HYIP-s exit strategy