Fraudulent coupons are out there! You may ask yourself "How do I know which coupons are legit and which ones are not?".
One of the main ways to tell if the coupon is a fraud is to ask yourself one simple question...Is it too good to be true?
If the coupon is for $10 off of any Duracell battery...chances are you have a fraud. If a coupons value is worth more than the regular cost of an item you may want to deem it suspicious.
There have been many times when a manufacturer coupon has been released yielding free items even at regular cost. These types of coupons are OK!
One great example is the $1 off any Johnson's Baby Product coupon that has been released online and in newspaper inserts countless times. The coupon states that it can be used on any Johnson's Baby Product and of course most of us try to look for the cheapest item in the product line to see if we can get it for free or close to it!
The closest I have ever come in contact with a fraudulent coupon is with the $4 off of any CVS Brand item that came out a while ago. This coupon actually came from CVS's corporate website (the link was to their hosting site) but it was only intended for certain email recipients and they didn't want everyone using it so they stopped taking them.
Another form of a fraudulent coupon is when a legit coupon gets pulled out of circulation.
The CVS coupon I mentioned above was one of them! I have also seen Coke pull its FREE 12 pk of Coke product coupon. It both cases individuals were duplicating the item against the creators intentions. The coupon becomes void and if you use it the store will not be reimbursed for it. The stores usually catch on to the fraudulent coupons before we even hear about it so you don't really need to worry about them for the most part. Just remember not to get upset if they deny the use of a certain coupon. Each store has the right to take or not take any coupon. I have seen many individuals get upset about this but we cannot control it.
Another example of an altered coupon happened with Target. Someone altered a coupon that was meant to be a certain amount off of a toy purchase. They changed the wording to allow the coupon to be used off of any product purchase instead of just the toy purchase. This coupon was rejected almost immediately. Once the first few came into corporate they pulled the coupon!
Most fraudulent coupons come in the form of a PDF document or an image that has been created and uploaded to a picture hosting site. There are a variety of programs that allow counterfeiters to alter the image of a coupon. They can take wording of, such as $1 off any, and replace it with the word FREE. There is no limit to what they can change a coupon into.
My suggestion is to be cautious...if it looks suspicious just don't use it. If you really want to know if the coupon is legit or not you can call the manufacturer to find out!
I have found a great site. The Coupon Information Corporation, that lists most (but not all) fraudulent coupons in PDF format. They update the coupons as they are notified of them!
You can go here to view a list of the coupons!
The GroceryCouponGuide.Com also has some great information on coupon scams and lists counterfeit coupons also! You can go here to view the articles.
