Fraudulent Coupons - They Do Exist

I was at my son's High School this weekend for a function and had a very interesting conversation about coupons with another mother. She told me her mother-in-law had emailed her six coupons for a free bag of Doritos. Her husband tried to use one and the store wouldn't accept it because it was a fraudulent.

Check out Snopes.com and The Coupon Information Corporation (CIC) for more information on this coupon.

I know this family, and have even met the mother-in-law. They are not the type of people who would ever do something illegal or unethical. But they found themselves trying to use a fraudulent coupon. This could have subjected them to criminal prosecution and/or civil action.

Fraudulent coupons impact all of us. If a retailer accepts a fraudulent coupon, they will not get reimbursed. If retailers don't get reimbursed for coupons, they aren't going to accept them, or they are going to raise prices to cover their losses - maybe they'll do both. The fact that these coupons exists at all makes retailers suspicious of all printable coupons. And, we wonder why cashier are so leery of our fist full of coupons?

Do your part in stopping fraudulent coupon circulation.

• Be leery of pdf coupons unless you can link to them from the manufacturer's website.
• Be suspicious of coupons emailed to you unless they come from the manufacturer or retailer.
• Check out CIC or Snopes.com if you question the legitimacy of a coupon.
• If a friend emails you a fraudulent coupon, email them back information about the coupon and ask them to notify anyone else they sent the coupon to, not to use it.

At Coupon STL, I error on the side of caution. I will not post a link to a pdf coupon unless I can link to it from the manufacturer's web site.