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Beware of online Secret Sister scam

It’s that time of year again, when anonymous Secret Santa gift exchanges take place in offices, schools and throughout the community in the lead-up to Christmas.

However, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) is warning of an online gift exchange called Secret Sister. BBB claims the online exchange, which is spread through chain mail and on social media platforms, is actually an illegal pyramid scheme.

“It comes up each year around the holiday season,” said Shawna-Kay Thomas, BBB of Southern Alberta and East Kootenay communications specialist. “It’s been around for about four years, and each Christmas, we see different twists and we see it re-emerge.”

She said Secret Sister presents itself as an online invitation to sign up and exchange gifts anonymously with other participants. However, that e-vite is the first sign of trouble, she said, as it asks for members to provide personal information, including a name, mailing address and the names of additional friends to recruit.

According to Thomas, providing that type of information to an online stranger opens up the possibility of becoming a target for identity theft.

“Those things are pieces of information that can be added to other pieces of information to be used for forbidden activities in the future,” she said.

“As well, this [recruitment of more people] is considered a pyramid scheme and it is illegal in Canada.”

After signing up for Secret Sister, you are asked to invite more people to participate in the scam, and then you are assigned another member to send your gift to.

The scheme promises participants will receive several gifts – up to 36 – despite only needing to buy just a single gift for an anonymous person. According to BBB, this promise is misleading.

“Just like any other pyramid scheme, it relies on the recruitment of individuals to keep the scam afloat,” read a statement from BBB. “Once people stop participating in the gift exchange, the gift supply stops as well, and leaves hundreds of disappointed people without their promised gifts.”

If you receive an invitation to participate in Secret Sister, Thomas said, BBB recommends ignoring it and reporting it to the social media platform.

“It’s OK for you to do this with friends, families, co-workers or people you know in your office,” she said. “You can do a gift exchange or Secret Santa, but when it is done on these platforms and it’s total strangers you’re engaging with, it becomes very [dangerous].”

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