Recently there was a ring of women in Phoenix busted for coupon fraud. Yay! I think it’s great, because those who commit fraud and counterfeit ruin it for the rest of us.
Graphic courtesy of MultiChannelMerchant.
Even the casual couponer needs to protect themselves against fraud. Here are some tips.
1. When you find a printable source online, know the signs of what is legit and what isn’t. Familiarize yourself with what a coupon from a good site looks like, like Coupons.com, Red Plum and SmartSource. Notice they have bar codes, tracking information around the perimeter of the coupon and they are generally NOT PDFs. It’s ok to get them from blogs, but the blogs generally will redirect you to the original site. Be very wary of PDFs, unless you find them on a manufacturer’s website. Most manufacturers have learned the hard way that PDFs give you unlimited prints, which is why they don’t do them anymore. The legit sites generally only give you 1-2 prints per computer.
If the full image of the coupon is available on your computer screen, it’s probably a fake. Brands no longer put full images available (like you know the preview screen you see on Bricks?) because it opens them up to fraud.
2. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Did you find an offer to purchase a bunch of coupons for a free huge box of Pampers, or free $20 bottle of olive oil? If it’s a really high value coupon and there are a whole bunch of them available, chances are they are counterfeit. I go to many blogging events that are sponsored by manufacturers and brands, and they offer coupons for free items and generally each blogger is allowed to take only one or two. So it’s very unlikely that an ebay seller is going to find these honestly.
It is very, very difficult to get awesome coupons in high quantities, it just is. Coupons for free items are very hard to come by, especially in large quantities and never on the internet. Yes, I have occasionally seen a store coupon for $5 off a $5 purchase or even $10 off $10…….but never $25 or $50. $50 off $150-yes. $50 off $50, no.
3. It is NOT illegal to “sell” coupons. However, it is strongly discouraged by the manufacturers. This is why on most ebay listings or clipping websites, you’ll find a disclaimer that says “You’re not actually paying for the coupons, you’re paying for my time to clip them and mail them to you, blah blah blah.” Just remember that….I believe that more and more individuals are going to be arrested for coupon fraud, do you want to be the next one? And if I was going to look for couponers to prosecute, ebay would be the first place I’d start. That and private websites is where you will find the big quantities of high value coupons, most of which are fraudulent. I recently spoke with an Acme store manager and he said in recent workshops and manager meetings, they were being told that 75% of all coupons for FREE items are fraudulent.
In fact, if you look at the website of the women that were busted, you had to have a referral to even purchase coupons from them–they were trying to safeguard themselves from undercover cops I assume. Since when does any legitimate business require that you have to have a referral to be a customer?
But overall, know that buying, selling and trading coupons is legal–there is no law prohibiting it. The manufacturer always has the right to not honor the coupon or reimburse for it, according to whatever wording they have put on the coupon. And when manufacturers STOP reimbursing merchants for coupons, merchants stop taking them. This is why coupon fraud hurts everyone–stores begin to get very conservative and err on the side of caution, and thus refuse even legitimate coupons.
Ebay has partnered with manufacturers and Ebay to limit the number of coupons a seller can sell on Ebay, but I have no idea how well that is policed. And it has just pushed the scammers to their own private websites, like the ladies in Arizona.
4. Use trading forums instead, and I’ll recommend the one on HotCouponWorld. There is no way that any site can guarantee with 100% that no scammers will appear, but good trading forums are the next best thing. Trading is a great way to unload the coupons you don’t want while acquiring the ones you do want. Those forums are closely moderated and scammers are quickly banned. Members rate each other and leave feedback, and you can’t even trade on there without going through a rookie process first–so a new user can’t get on there and start scamming right away. You can also join or start a local coupon trading group, they are commonly found at churches or libraries.
5. Never ever trade or giveaway a printable that you printed from your computer. Those printables are tracked to your ISP address, and if someone photocopies a whole bunch of them and it gets back to the company, they can ban your ISP address and you’ll never be able to print from that site again. I RAOK (random act of kindness) coupons all the time in the grocery store, leaving a few next to the product that they are for–but never printables.You just never know who will end up with them.
6. Only use coupons for the items specified on the coupon. Yes, we have, ahem, seen otherwise on a certain TV show. Regularly. That doesn’t make it ok. Just because the coupon doesn’t beep or have to be hand-keyed in to work, doesn’t mean it’s legitimate use of that coupon. Is it really worth it? If a store or company would choose to prosecute, they can find you via your shopper loyalty card, the form of payment you used (unless cash) or via store security cameras. Is a few free boxes of something really worth the embarrassment of it all, if you’re caught?
7. For all of your coupons, only get them from legitimate sources. If you are looking for multiple inserts, I did a post over 4 years ago on some ideas on where to find coupons. It is possible to get multiple coupons and multiple inserts honestly.
8. If you do think you are seeing coupon fraud, report it. It only takes a minute or two to send off an email to the CIC. And like I said, coupon fraud hurts all of us.
Always take the high road……it’s just not worth getting caught. And it’s not Smart Spending!
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