You start in your family’s basement, setting up a small and very questionable tech company. The space is cramped, resources are limited, and nothing about the project is truly real but it's the perfect place for your entire scheme to take shape.

To make your project look more convincing, you’ll need to bring in freelancers. Hire web developers to throw together flashy landing pages, video editors to cut slick promotional trailers, or animators to mock up product demos that don’t really exist. Each hire comes with a cost and a bit of risk, but they’re the backbone of selling the illusion that your startup is real and worth investing in. After all, you’re not paying them to build a business you’re paying them to build the perfect trap.

To keep your fake empire from collapsing, you need a constant stream of new investors. Use streaming platforms to hire influencers and lure their trusting audiences with the promise of easy money. Strategically choose who to partner with to attract the most people and keep the cash flowing. Just remember: the only way to pay the first suckers is with money from the next.

Slowly expand your net of workers to keep your credibility high. Make them believe it's too big to fail, too professional to be fake or too rewarding to question where the money really comes from.