Buy a book for a kid and get more- is it a crime?

A few years ago, shortly after Bence was born, I took part in a game. The point was to buy a book for another little kid and send it to him. And of course we got books later.

The text of the call changes a little sometimes, but the point remains the same. Currently, I have encountered this version several times in the last days on facebook:

"Dear Friends! 😊 Because tales are so important to kids ...

📚I take part in a very nice game for kids to read. For children who read 15 minutes a day, their vocabulary is expanded by 1,000 words a year.

☝️I am looking for six parents, a grandparent, an uncle, an aunt, a teacher, or just someone who is close to the idea of ​​contributing to the children’s cultural development.

✉The idea is to send a book to a child (I will send the child's name, address, age in a message). In return, you will receive 36 books for your own child.

✍If you are interested in the project, write here and I will write the details. I count on you to get the books for all the kids involved! 💝"

How does the game work?

If you see such a call and contact the poster, he will send you the details of the game. It’s about having to buy a book worth about 6-8 $ (that’s how much the amount has been for a few years, as prices may have risen, I don’t know) to the first kid on the list and send him the book. Only 2 children are on the list. So you send a book to the first one and delete him from the list, write the details of the second child in his place and the details of your child in the second place. Name, address, age. The name and address are obviously necessary to mail the book, and age is essential for a child to receive a book that matches their age.

After that, you will also need to find 6 people who would like to join this game and send them the details of the game and the list of 2 children you have already edited. The 6 people you join will buy a book for the first child on the list, that is, the child of the person you join. Once they also edit the list, your child will be in the first place. So the 6 people you connect will send this to 6-6 people who will all send a book to your child. 6x6 = 36! You should get 36 books. You will then be removed from the list and the game is over for you.

Unfortunately, there is a very high probability that you will not receive 36 books, because on the one hand, it is not certain that 6 people will join you, nor is it certain that they will succeed.

But why can't you accept this game with 6 people? 6 people is not much at all. Most people also like to give and receive gifts, especially when it comes to children. Well, the answer is, on the one hand, that this game is considered by most to be a pyramid scheme that is punished by law in many countries. Not everyone thinks this way, frankly I have objections too, it’s not exactly the same as the pyramid scheme. But if a person who believes it is a scam, a crime (omg) encounters such a post, then he feels an irresistible desire to dissuade everyone from joining.

Most parents are happy to join such an initiative, and it doesn’t bother them if they accidentally get not 36 books but only 28 or 12 or even just 3. The worst case scenario is that you will break the chain completely and you will not receive a single book. That’s a sad thing, of course, and you’re sure to be disappointed on some level. But you would still be happy because you brought joy to the little kid you sent a book to.

But I am convinced that without the malicious people (who dissuade others from joining) this game could work for years, there would always be a new joiner who hadn’t heard of the game before or had just become a parent. Of course, sometimes there would be a bug in the system and as I mentioned, not everyone would get 36 books but someone less. But seriously! A normal person doesn’t make it a problem if they “only” get 10 books while buying a single one.

So I got into a discussion on Facebook yesterday where I don’t really do anything other than read anyway. But now I couldn't restrain myself. One mom posted about this game and another mom immediately commented that "no one should join because it's a scam," just because she read it somewhere.

And I just don’t understand why things like that are needed. It's okay for her to think so, don't join, turn on. But why take away the enthusiasm of others? She argued that she wanted to protect the children of the joiners from disappointment if they didn’t get anything. uhm ... okay .. i told her to look the other way. If no one joins to the game because of her, she herself will disappoint the child of mom who uploaded that post.

On the other hand, although the pyramid scheme is illegal, I don’t think anyone would be held accountable for participating, it’s not about money, it’s about books. Not about business people but about simple parents. If I went to the police to report this game, the cops would laugh with tears. And the pyramid scheme, in my opinion, is about the people at the top of the pyramid always benefiting more than those below them. And here, on the one hand, the list is constantly changing, you won’t stay in the game forever, and on the other hand, in principle, everyone has the same “benefit”.

I am not currently participating in this game, this article is not for recruitment purposes. I’m just curious what you think about this. And of course your experience if you have already been involved in such a thing.

Images source: Pixabay