Warning from Wiltshire Trading Standards over Secret Santa pyramid scheme
It attempts to convince people they will get 36 presents in exchange for a small investment
Last updated 24th Nov 2020
Wiltshire's residents are being urged to not fall for a festive-themed pyramid scam, currently circulating on Facebook.
Known as the The 'Secret Sister Gift Exchange', it encourages people to make a small investment which promises 36 gifts from strangers in return.
Wiltshire Trading Standards says that whilst the scheme sounds feasible, it works like a chain letter with far too many participants.
Therefore most people won't receive a single present.
The exchange is mostly organised through Facebook groups, encouraging people to send a low-value gift to a person whose name and address is at the top of a long participants list.
Once the gift has been sent, the groups remove the first-placed person and replace them with the individual in second-place.
As the invites spread and more people receive the list, the idea is that each participant gets up to 36 gifts as others join the exchange.
'They're illegal in the UK'
In a Facebook post, Wiltshire Trading Standards said:
"As more and more people join, the number of people theoretically involved swells to far more than would ever take part - if the first 36 each invite six people, the total number of participants is 216.
"If all of those people do it, the number inflates to 1,296.
"By only the tenth stage of the process, over 60 million people are involved.
"Those who start these schemes or enter in the second round do stand a small chance of actually receiving something - but it's almost impossible for those who join later to ever reach the top, and as the scheme fizzles out, they receive nothing in return.
"Like most other pyramid schemes, it promises huge returns on a small initial investment. Not only are pyramid schemes mathematically impossible they're also illegal in the UK."