This year’s shady holiday gift exchange comes with a new twist – wine. If gifting one bottle of wine and receiving dozens in return sounds too go to be true, that’s because it is.
According to the Better Business Bureau, people will be scrolling through social media, when they see an invitation to participate in a wine gift exchange. The trouble is that this is a pyramid scheme. It relies on recruiting new individuals to keep the scam afloat. Once people stop participating in the exchange, the gift supply stops as well and leaves disappointed participants without their promised gifts.
Pyramid schemes are illegal in the US and Canada. The U.S. Postal Inspection Services explains that these gift exchanges are considered a form of gambling and that participants could be subject to penalties such as jail time, fines, or a lawsuit for mail fraud.
