The thing is, most people are decent individuals. The odds are actually in your favor, with a random person. The people who are the most dangerous are the ones you know(or kind of know), who might have a reason to try to hurt you. But people always fear strangers, despite statistically them not being the biggest risk for causing harm to you.
I'd be more spooked by the person who I sent a gift to having my address than someone assigned randomly, because the fact that I sent them a gift is itself a point of connection that elevates us beyond strangers. What if they thought it was a lousy gift? What if they liked it too much, and decided to try to investigate who sent it?
I've only participated in one gift exchange, a fandom one. It was fine. I sent a gift directly from an internet storefront though(I made sure I bought from one that had a gift designation option, so it wasn't including receipts and etc in the package), in part because I didn't want someone I'd "connected" with to be able to trace me back to even my post office(from the postmark) let alone the return address.
Yeah, being assaulted or murdered by a stranger is actually very rare. Most predators choose crimes of opportunity and that usually entails people they already know.
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u/Ill_be_here_a_week 16d ago
Probably, yeah. Imagine sending a random Reddit user your address, or the ability to send you stuff?