I've watched these schemes for more than 50 years. The only folks that make any money are the ones that dream them up.Just thought I would post a follow up to this in case anyone else here was considering getting into mining.
In mid September I built a 3GPU rig. In early November I added two additional GPUs. At this time I have recouped 63% of my investment and could easily sell my rig for about 90% of what I have in it if I decided to get out. I say that because just to see what kind of response I would get I put the rig on craigslist and have had offers for what I have in it.
Three weeks ago I was talking to my father about it and we ended up building him a 2GPU rig and a week later he ordered a different motherboard to expand, ordered 4 more GPUs and will be ordering an additional 6 when he gets back from vacation.
If you are interested in getting into mining and have questions let me know. I am by no means an expert but have learned a few things in the couple months since I started. If you are curious about what it takes and what kind of results you can expect I set up a small website that will show you what hardware you will need to buy and gives some links to calculators to see what your expected return is.
http://www.flminer.com
At this time:
$900 investment is expected to return $90/month
$1900 investment is expected to return $290/month
$3300 investment is expected to return $525/month
If you already have a gaming video card you can get started for no money in. If you already have a desktop computer with a free PCIE x16 slot you can get a single card for as little as $250. Each of my sons did this (back when the cards were $200 each) and are getting about $40/month.
Disclaimer: Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.