{"id":360,"date":"2015-11-07T10:17:47","date_gmt":"2015-11-07T15:17:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fbreitinger.de\/?p=360"},"modified":"2016-02-10T06:38:18","modified_gmt":"2016-02-10T11:38:18","slug":"interview-about-secret-sister-gift-exchange","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fbreitinger.de\/?p=360","title":{"rendered":"Facebook \u2018secret sister gift exchange\u2019 is a scam"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The original story can be found <a href=\"http:\/\/wtnh.com\/2015\/11\/06\/facebook-secret-sister-gift-exchange-is-a-scam\/\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/up.anv.bz\/latest\/anvload.html?key=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\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) \u2013 Search on Facebook for \u201csecret sister gift exchange\u201d and you\u2019ll find people posting and re-posting the same message over and over again. The message claims you can buy a gift for $10 or more, add your name to a list and then receive a bounty of 36 gifts. \u201cA lot of friends are doing it, or at least posting about it. Doesn\u2019t sound like a good idea,\u201d Lauren Kidwell said.<\/p>\n<p>Kidwell said \u201csecret sister\u201d sounds a whole lot like a pyramid scam she saw years ago. \u201cYou only spend $10, get one gift for someone else. Everybody else sends you one. Doesn\u2019t make sense,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n<p>University of South Florida mass communications instructor Kelli Burns knows all about the secret sister gift exchange. \u201cI\u2019ve seen it on Facebook. A couple of my friends are participating,\u201d Burns said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a typical pyramid scheme. We\u2019re just seeing this on Facebook this time instead of the old way of using letters, and Facebook allows it to spread a lot faster,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<p>The biggest problem with the post is it\u2019s illegal. United States Post Office regulations are very clear about pyramid schemes, and these gifts are being sent through the mail.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s also problematic because your personal information is posted on Facebook. \u201cIt\u2019s against Facebook\u2019s terms of agreement. So there\u2019s the potential that Facebook, if they got wind of this, could block your account,\u201d Burns said.<\/p>\n<p>But it\u2019s so enticing, especially when you see your friends doing it, and inviting you to join in. \u201dThe chances of you getting 36 gifts are very slim. And what are you gonna get? A bunch of junk that you probably don\u2019t want anyway,\u201d Burns said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The original story can be found here. TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) \u2013 Search on Facebook for \u201csecret sister gift exchange\u201d and you\u2019ll find people posting and re-posting the same message over and over again. The message claims you can buy a gift for $10 or more, add your name to a list and then receive a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tv-interview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fbreitinger.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fbreitinger.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fbreitinger.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fbreitinger.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fbreitinger.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=360"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/fbreitinger.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":524,"href":"https:\/\/fbreitinger.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360\/revisions\/524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fbreitinger.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fbreitinger.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fbreitinger.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}