Secret Sister is a
chain letter
A chain letter is a message that attempts to convince the recipient to make a number of copies and pass them on to a certain number of recipients. The "chain" is an exponentially growing pyramid (a tree graph) that cannot be sustained indefini ...
-type
gift exchange pyramid scheme
A pyramid scheme is a business model which, rather than earning money (or providing Return on investment, returns on investments) by sale of legitimate product (business), products to an end consumer, mainly earns money by recruiting new members ...
that has been primarily spread through
Facebook
Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
.
It was first noticed in late 2015, and returned in the Christmas season each year after that.
In a typical post, participants are given a list of six names and are asked to send one gift (or book, or
bottle of wine
"Bottle of Wine" is a song written and recorded by Tom Paxton, which was a hit for the band The Fireballs, whose version reached #9 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in 1968 and #5 in Canada. It also reached #3 in South Africa. The song, which inclu ...
) valued at about $10–15
USD
The United States dollar (symbol: $; currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introduced the U.S. dollar at par with the Spanish silver dollar, divided it int ...
to the person at the top of the list. They are then asked to remove the person in the top spot, move the person in the number two spot to the top, add themselves to the number two spot, and invite six friends. If those six friends all send gifts to the person at the top of the list and recruit six additional people, the original participant will receive a total of 36 gifts.
Unlike a typical
Secret Santa
Secret Santa is a Western Christmas or Saint Nicholas tradition in which members of a group are randomly assigned a person to whom they give a gift. The identity of the gift-giver remains a secret until the end when Secret Santas are revealed.
...
exchange, where participants only give and receive one gift, Secret Sister participants are unlikely to receive the promised gifts. This is because an
exponentially growing pyramid of gift givers and recipients cannot be sustained indefinitely. As it gets harder to recruit new participants, the scheme will fall apart.
According to
Snopes.com
''Snopes'' (), formerly known as the ''Urban Legends Reference Pages'', is a fact-checking website. It has been described as a "well-regarded reference for sorting out myths and rumors" on the Internet. The site has also been seen as a source ...
, while a handful of people claim to have received a single gift when participating in a Secret Sister exchange, there is no evidence that anyone has received a substantial number of gifts via this scheme.
See also
*
List of internet phenomena
Internet phenomena are social and cultural phenomena specific to the Internet, such as Internet memes, which include popular catchphrases, images, viral videos, and jokes. When such fads and sensations occur online, they tend to grow rapidly ...
*
Pyramid scheme
A pyramid scheme is a business model which, rather than earning money (or providing Return on investment, returns on investments) by sale of legitimate product (business), products to an end consumer, mainly earns money by recruiting new members ...
*
Make Money Fast
Make Money Fast (stylised as MAKE.MONEY.FAST) is a title of an electronically forwarded chain letter created in 1988 which became so infamous that the term is often used to describe all sorts of chain letters forwarded over the Internet, by e- ...
References
{{Scams and confidence tricks
Confidence tricks