Yesterday in AZ, a MAJOR coupon fraud ring was busted. They had over 25 million in fraudulent coupons that they were selling.
From the article:
“The Coupon Information Corporation is calling this the largest counterfeit coupon case the industry has ever seen.
These investigators discovered most of the fake coupons were being used in Arizona. Investigators also found that the coupons were being sold through the website, Savvyshoppersite.com.
“They are variations, reproductions of what were at one point legitimate coupons,” said Bud Miller with the Coupon Information Corporation.
So the coupons often worked and as a result manufacturers lost millions.
Police say the scope of the investigation and the economic impact are massive with hundreds of millions of dollars in losses.
“We’re talking about anywhere from $400 to $600 million in loss,” said Holmes. “This is to American companies who produced American products and hire American citizens.”
Miller said consumers should never pay money for coupons.
“If you’re a consumer out there and you purchased coupons from this website you certainly should not use them. You are subject to arrest,” said Miller.”
Never, Never, Never pay for coupons that you did not buy yourself from the Sunday paper. Even from insert companies who sell the whole inserts, you can NOT be certain where the inserts are coming from. There is ALWAYS the possibility that they were stolen from the newspapers that YOU were supposed to be getting.
I have seen SO MANY emails from readers who have ordered coupons from Ebay, only to get obvious copies of internet printed coupons and coupons to good to be true in value for brands.
Coupons are a form of cash. You will be prosecuted for using fraudulent coupons. If you need more information you can go to the Coupon Information Center.
Should have known this would be happening.. One bad seed will end up ruining it for all of us legal coupon users 🙁
Have you checked their website out? They have the following section listed on their home page…..
” This section has been created and reserved especially for
Bad Check Writers, Con Artists and Scammers. Make no mistake, these people have taken items and not paid for them. ”
And they list the person(s) by name and full address. Yet these same people are scamming all Americans themself. I just don’t get it!
Can you believe? Saw this on the news this morning.
It’s just wrong. Glad they were caught I hate the losses
that were suffered because of these folks.
Doesn’t make us couponers look very good.
Oh my gosh! I read the article. They have been doing this for 4 years. They are stupid. I’m so glad they shut them down. This website has helped me so much. Thanks for what you do for my family. I do my best with the coupons I get and I can sleep at night. THANKS.
I reported several frauds to ebay regarding this scam. I also sent messages to companies I knew were being defrauded. Glad to see these creeps being busted.
Please tell me someone printed a “Get Out Of Jail Free” coupon.
Don’t pass go,
Hasbro
ahahaha! 🙂 thanks for the laugh
Probably where the EC shoppers were getting the high value q for toilet paper and other goods.
Wow!! I have hated that show just because of these bogus coupons values. I wonder if they could pull ECouponing participants and see if they were buying those bogus coupons…now that would be nice.
The answer is no, we didn’t.
Thanks for sharing stories like this. I hope that this will make people think before they do something that is NOT RIGHT!!!!! Just buy the Sunday papers or trade coupons with others, is being jail really worth it??????
There were actually at least 5 different sites with these coupons, all but 3 of the 5 I have read about have been shut down so far. Some of the coupons are obviously too good to be true, but there are others that a newbie or naive person might not would question. The news articles I read also said some of these were being sold on ebay, not just at the site you mentioned above. I know I saw the Hershey’s coupons and Tide coupons for sale on ebay that they have listed on their sites. Not that I was looking to purchase, I don’t buy coupons. I was looking to see what a poster on another blog was talking about with a $4 Hershey’s coupon she used to buy a single Hershey bar and get overage for her cart. She also was using a $5 Driscoll’s fruit coupon and buying a single package of berries for $2 and getting overage. I called Driscoll’s to inquire about that. The person I talked to on the phone sounded as if she could care less as to what I was inquiring about. Why would a person be selling a group of 10 $5 off Driscoll’s fruit coupons and have multiple listings of them for a total of about 60 coupons at that moment? I agree completely with your statements about not buying coupons. I know some areas get crappy coupons, my area is like that. Thank goodness we have a larger city nearby so I can get their papers. Bottom line is, if people with stop buying the coupons online, there will be no market for them to be sold and maybe we can all continue couponing with honesty and integrity to save our families money.
not shocking…sad actually…just for sh*ts and giggles i went to their website and it is STILL UP AND RUNNING!! WHY HAVENT THEY SHUT THE WEBSITE DOWN YET???? how do we get the website shut down anyone know how that is done??? people like these are going to ruin it for the H O N E S T couponers….. LIKE ME!!!
people like this make me so M A D!!! >:(
The site may be running, but I am pretty sure they can’t fulfill orders. The better question is how do we get these fake coupons off ebay. Go there right now and you will see many of the ones she has listed for sale right now on ebay…Mrs. Butterworths free to $5.99 value, there was Dr. Pepper 12 pack this morning, Van dekamps and more. Several of those sellers say in their post they were acquired from ebay and other internet sources for reselling. Why is ebay allowing this? Both the Tide free 32 load coupon and the Hershey’s $4 off any coupons are gone now. I saw them a few weeks ago when someone did a post about their overage. I looked out of curiosity like you Christine. I would never buy those.
Does your blog have a contact page? I’m having problems locating it but, I’d like to shoot you an
e-mail. I’ve got some suggestions for your blog
you might be interested in hearing. Either way, great website and I look forward to seeing it expand over time.
heartthemart @ gmail.com