Don’t Fall for the “Secret Sister” Facebook Scam
This week, Secret Sister Gift Exchange invitations have reappeared. You’ve probably seen the same or something similar pop-up with you. In case you haven’t figured it out yet: this is a scam. The Better Business Bureau issued a warning against the exchange earlier this week .
The idea behind the exchange is that you buy one $ 10 gift and send it to your “secret sister,” and then 6 to 36 gifts should magically appear on your doorstep in return. While this sounds great, if you really think about this concept for a few minutes, you can probably see that it is probably a little flawed.
It works like this: six different people recruit six of their friends to participate. All 36 people (six groups of six) send a gift to the same person at the top of the “secret sisters” list. They then hire six more people, who all send the gift to the second person on the list, adding their name to the end of the list, which is passed on to the recruits.
The person who started all of this may receive something in the mail, but the further you get on the list, the less likely it is. Someone always dumps or can’t hire six of their friends … while if you’re the number one person on the list you can still squeeze a few gifts out of the project, the number six person will probably never stand the chance.
It’s worth mentioning that your friend is probably not trying to trick you. Most likely, they just thought the idea sounded good and didn’t think it through before posting it.
The show TODAY this week noted that Facebook’s viral hoax is an illegal pyramid scheme at best, but it most likely falls into the “illegal gambling” category because you hope to get more out of the project than you put in. By the way, “illegal” is a key part of the description.
You also give out your home address to a bunch of strangers, which is also not a good idea.
The Better Business Bureau suggests that if you receive an invitation to join the “Secret Sister” or similar exchange this year, ignore it and report the post to Facebook by clicking the three dots in the upper-right side of the post. You can also just link to this post ( or the Better Business Bureau ) in the comments of the post. They will get the idea.