Love Books? Don’t Fall for this Facebook Pyramid Scheme

We've all seen the posts on Facebook, where they ask you if you want to join a Secret Santa, Bourbon Exchange, Woman Empowering Women, etc. You buy something and send it to a person, and then that person sends it to someone else, and so on, so forth.

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In the end, you are supposed to end up with six different things. Another one of those is making the rounds on Facebook, with books, here how the post reads,

I don't usually do these but...

I’m looking for people to participate in a huge book exchange. You can be anywhere in the world. All you have to do is buy your favorite book (just one) and send it to a stranger (I'll send their details in a private message). You’ll receive roughly 36 books back to you, to keep. They'll be favorite books from strangers around the world.
An easy option is to order your book off of Amazon and have it sent directly to your person. I've done this before with great results and one of my favorite books of all time was received through this process!

You agree to this and you're sent an address by DM, you send a book to that person, that person is given an address and they send a book, and so on, so forth. Then you ask your friends to join, and the circle continues. By the end of it you should have a library of 36 books.

When it comes to these posts you should follow the, "if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is," rule.

Most of these posts are pyramid schemes.

What is a Pyramid Scheme?

The Federal Trade Commission defines a pyramid scheme as:

Pyramid schemes are scams. They can look remarkably like legitimate MLM business opportunities and often sell actual products, maybe even ones you've heard of. But if you become a distributor for a pyramid scheme, it can cost you and your recruits — often your family and friends — a lot of time and money that you won’t get back.

What are other terms used?

Gifting Circles, Blessing Circles, Sou-sou, Mandela Game,
If you're old enough to remember chain letters, then these are just the digital version of them.

How to avoid these scams

Your best bet is to ignore a post like this and move on. In this case, just go to the library, Amazon, or a bookstore for your books. In all reality, you won't see 36 books delivered to your door step.

Don't share your personal information. Just don't not even if you think you're sharing it with your friend.

Report the post on social media, if you don't want to get scammed or you don't want your friends getting scammed just report it.

The moral of this story is, if you have to spend money (that includes books), to get multiple items in return for "free", don't fall for it.