As enticing as the exchange and 36 gifts sound, remember these gift chains are illegal, according to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s gambling and pyramid scheme laws.
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“We see that a lot with different types of fraud where – once people have fallen for one kind of scam – that their name and contact information gets sold to other people and that they get solicitations for other kinds of scams”.
The “Secret Sister” post has been shared all over Facebook, and tells those who want to participate to send a private message to get full instructions, which includes a list of names. At least, that’s the only way we can think to explain the persistence of the appealing but mathematically impossible “secret sister” hoax, which started popping up on Facebook last month and shows no signs of stopping, despite more than a century of attempts to debunk letters and e-mails like it.
Just in the third round, 1,296 people would be involved, Doug Bolton wrote for The Independent.
Kimberly Truong wrote for Mashable of the “Secret Santa”-style exchange’s process”. Because the gifts are being sent through the mail it is a violation of federal law.
Remove secret sister’s name from #1; then move secret sister #2 to that spot.
First, participants must disclose questionable details. It may sound harmless: you buy one gift for 10 bucks and in return, you get 36 gifts sent to you.
It’s the social media version of chain-letter gifting, which can be illegal. And according to the US Postal Inspection Service, chain letters are illegal if they request money or a few item of value, and promise a return to those who participate. “But while a handful of individuals claimed to have received a single gift, none reported an avalanche of $10 trinkets arriving at their doors”.
Facebook fantatics should beware, too, Jennifer O’Neill wrote for Yahoo News: Calling for personal information on the site breaks Facebook’s terms of agreement.
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“Had such a plan ever borne fruit, accounts of such success mysteriously remained virtually nonexistent”, Snopes’ piece reads. But the Secret Sister gift exchange is problematic because it happens in virtual reality.
