This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Can you buy and sell Instacart accounts as a side hustle? Maybe you've heard about people buying and selling Instacart accounts or DoorDash accounts. Maybe you haven't, but basically in the gig economy, you'll sometimes hear about these gray market strategies. They're kind of workarounds, loopholes, shortcuts. So we've got a caller here.
He's been doing some Instacart shopping. He kind of got into the gig economy and he wants to upgrade himself to a better side hustle, which if you haven't heard me say before, I think driving for Uber and doing these kinds of services, ultimately you're working for those companies, those platforms, not for yourself. So it can be helpful in some ways, but hopefully you want to transition to something else soon. And so he's thinking about his transition and he came across something odd online. He saw people selling or renting out their verified Instacart shopper accounts.
Now this might be a clever hack or it could be something that could get you into some trouble. So let's talk about it. Let's talk about the opportunity and the risks. I'll do my best to give you my unbiased answer, our caller, Tyler, and my response coming up after this quick thank you to our sponsor. [Music]
Hi Chris, this is Tyler.
I've been working as an Instacart shopper on the side for about a year now and I've been noticing something weird. Online, there are people talking about buying and selling Instacart accounts. Some claim it's a way to make passive income by renting out your account to someone else or by flipping a verified account to another shopper. It got me wondering, is this even legal or allowed? Can you actually buy or sell Instacart accounts?
And if not, what are the risks? I'm curious if this is a side hustle or just a bad idea. - All right, Tyler, I appreciate the curiosity and I think you're right to be skeptical. We've had these questions from time to time about gray markets and just one thing to note right up front, there's nothing illegal about doing these things. Sometimes people are like, is this against the law?
And the answer is no, it's not illegal. No one's gonna put you in jail for how you operate on Instacart as long as you're not stealing from people. But it is against the Instacart terms of service and pretty much all the platforms are gonna have similar terms of service here. So it is against the rules. It is risky.
They can cancel your accounts. They can cancel all your accounts if you have more than one. They can block you from registering new accounts. If you have earned money that they have not paid out, they can withhold it and good luck getting it back. So it's very risky.
You have to think about why should I do this compared to something else? And I think the reason why people do it, why some people do it is because there are places where access is limited. Sometimes there's not new Instacart accounts available. You have to like join a waiting list. So some people sell or rent out accounts to workers who can't pass the background check perhaps or who aren't approved for some reason.
And so they flip old verified accounts for a profit. Now that's how it works. That is the marketplace. But as I said, it's risky and it's actually risky for both parties. Like the buyer might pay for an account only to have it shut down a week later.
And then the seller can be liable if anything fraudulent or illegal is done under their name. So as I said, it's not illegal to buy or sell accounts. It's against the terms of service. But then what if that other person does something illegal? Could you be in trouble?
Yes, you could, at least potentially. So I think there's something better out there for you, Tyler. I think there's something else you can do. We've had more than 3000 episodes of the podcast. Hopefully there's an idea, at least one idea for you there.
I have a book called "100 Side Hustles" as well, where we went through and did profiles of a lot of people we featured on the first couple of years of the show. And you seem like a smart guy. So from one of those sources or even just your own brainstorming, I bet you can come up with something better. That's my challenge to you. It's unbiased.
As I said, I'm not gonna say don't do it. I'm just gonna say, I think you can probably do better. Listeners, let me know what you think. If you've got a question about something else or comment, sidehustleschool.com. We'll continue to feature listener questions throughout the year, along with other episodes.
We've got stories. We've got archival episodes we're pulling out. We've got first $1,000 segments. We've got a weekend workshop series. Basically, we've got something every day.
A short action-packed episode, less than 10 minutes long every single day, always free. You can subscribe or follow wherever you get your podcasts. My name is Chris Guillebeau. You're listening to Side Hustle School. [Music]
From the Onward Project.
