So how can you stay safe? The BBB has these recommendations for the next time someone tries to entice you into doing one of these gift exchanges. This information can be used by criminals in future scams or be used to commit identity theft. In addition, the BBB says you never want to give your personal information to strangers online. These gift exchanges are a form of gambling, and you could face jail time, fines or lawsuits for mail fraud by participating. Pyramid schemes are illegal in the United States. "Once people stop participating in the gift exchange, the gift supply stops as well, and leaves hundreds of disappointed people without their promised gifts." "Just like any other pyramid scheme, it relies on the recruitment of individuals to keep the scam afloat," the BBB says. Unfortunately, your favor won't be reciprocated. The cycle continues and you end up buying and shipping gifts to unknown people. Then, you're instructed to send an email or social media invite that asks to send a modest gift to a stranger along with their friends, family and contacts. This information gets added to an existing list of people who have already provided their information - strangers from the Internet that you've never met. It asks you for a few details, such as your name, address and the personal information of some of your friends and family. The scheme starts with an invitation, either by email or social media. It is a debt to be repaid, I hoped, in overpriced gadgetry."Users were encouraged to invite others to participate in the holiday gift exchange, then promised they would receive information on where to mail the gifts." I was trying assuage that familiar sense of middle-class guilt- the worry that we don’t deserve the love and stability we are so fortunate to have. But as I considered the two bubbles of plastic packaging in my hands, I knew I wasn’t making this purchase for them. I wanted to show my folks how much their unyielding love and support in those financially-dependent college years meant to me. It was my second year of full-time, salaried work after college. I was waiting in a Best Buy checkout line with a pair of Fitbits selected for my parents who, though known to play an inordinate amount of weekly racquet sports, have zero practical need to track the number of stairs they’ve climbed in their two-story suburban Colonial. I distinctly remember the profound sense of sadness I felt a few Decembers ago when I first realized the truth about gifts post-childhood. And in sending out these lists of quotidian trifles, you’re asking your loved ones to value their place in your life at the level of yoga mats. BAM! Behold my largesse, loved one.Īs a result, these queries almost always devolve into supply lists for daily existence - black socks, fresh bedsheets, cookware, a new vacuum - all things you would ordinarily pick up on a weekend errand if they weren’t such easily-forgettable non-essentials. And when the holidays finally arrive, I sling these oddments on bemused friends and family with all the panache of Emeril Lagasse seasoning a batch of gumbo. I snap up books and sweaters and ironically designed coffee mugs with the crazy-eyed, manic energy of a Doomsday prepper in the canned-foods aisle at Costco. On any given Saturday in the month of December, you can find me furtively scuttling around the nearest shopping mall, like the self-contradictory rat that I am. A berserker of gift-giving, you might say. I am, of course, a complete hypocrite on this front as an extremely active participant in our yearly capitalistic frenzy. Fitness watches, "New York Times" bestsellers, cotton-cashmere blends - all are more than likely destined to join a growing detritus of holidays past, archived in the back of closets. But most of all, I hate how the economic powers that be, the robber-barons of e-commerce, have managed to convince us, en masse, that December is the time to demonstrate our affection for one and other by way of sundries we are perfectly capable of buying for ourselves.
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