![]() But inevitably, employees often receive nominal gifts or promotional items, and those are often excluded from a general prohibition on gifts. Regarding gifts to and from vendors and customers, Garrison says policies often state that employees generally shouldn’t accept gifts or gratuities for doing the job the company pays them to do. Informing employees that participation is completely optional.Instructing employees that gifts must be appropriate for the workplace.Informing employees that if they want to go beyond the dollar limit, then the gift should be exchanged outside of work.Structuring the program so it’s run by the employees themselves, not the company.“However, if the company’s employees traditionally have exchanged gifts, or if the company’s employees have a holiday gift exchange, then I think it is wise for those companies to provide their employees with certain guidelines for their gift-giving,” he says. Garrison with the Baker and Daniels law firm in Indianapolis says employers need to keep the potential negative effects of gift giving at work in mind. Regardless of how an employer chooses to handle gifts, it’s important for employers to understand the pros and cons of office gift giving.īrian R. Steer clear of the Secret Sister or any other social media gift exchange.Evaluate your workplace policies with the Employment Practices Self-Audit Workbook Nothing could be further from the truth! Pyramid schemes are illegal and a government agency would never promote them.ĭon’t get on the naughty list this holiday season. Question it: Some of these fraudsters actually claim these schemes are not only legal, but U.S. Protect it: Restoring your identity is no joke! Keep your private information to yourself. Report it: Let the social media platform you’re using know about the circulating scheme by clicking on “report post.” Disregard any social media post, email, or letter asking to be a Secret Sister. They contain all three elements of a lottery: prize (expectation of monetary or another gain from participation in the pyramid) chance (the monetary return you may receive from your participation is entirely up to chance, that is, dependent on the efforts of those below you in the pyramid) and consideration (the price of your gift to join the pyramid).” Protect yourself:ĭelete it: Even though it seems lovely to receive many gifts, it could cost you your identity and your freedom. When the scam first appeared on Facebook in 2015, the USPIS posted, “Fraudulent pyramid schemes typically violate the Lottery Statute. Participants could be charged with mail fraud as well as face fines and jail time. The USPIS considers gift exchanges (newer scams feature exchanging bottles of wine) a form of gambling. 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, according to the Better Business Bureau (BBB), Secret Sister counts on “the recruitment of individuals to keep the scam afloat. Once the chain inevitably breaks, especially during the busy holiday season, the original participant is out $10 and will probably never get one gift, let alone 36! Then, those people have to provide their friends’ information, and so on. The catch is, participants need to provide not only their personal information but provide information of their social network members. The Secret Sister gift exchange calls for participants to buy one gift of at least $10 and send it to your “secret sis.” In exchange, they are promised 6-36 gifts in return. What seems like a fun way to bring cheer to many within the social media verse is actually an illegal pyramid scheme, according to the U.S. ![]() While the festive season brings lots of joy and cheer, it also brings out the grinches who are looking to steal not only your holiday bliss but also your identity and peace of mind. It’s back! The “Secret Sister” holiday gift scam has reared its crooked head again, just in time for the holidays.
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