Fake Coupons

In my last post, Paying for Manufacturer Coupons, I talked about paying for manufacturer coupons on eBay. In this post, I want to alert you to the possibility of getting fake coupons from eBay sellers, questionable coupons sites, or spam emails. These fake coupons are the ones found on the internet that coupon clippers print out themselves at home, and not the coupons that come in the Sunday paper.

Coupon fraud is on the rise as the county’s economy worsens. Fake coupons cost grocers, retailers, and honest coupon clippers. Generally, if a store suffers large losses that it cannot absorb, the losses will be passed on to all the stores’ customers in the form of higher prices. Moreover, the fake coupons will make the store’s management reluctant to accept printed coupons.

Counterfeit coupons are difficult to spot because they look like real coupons. Nevertheless, there are a few clues that will help you tell them apart.

Clues include missing redemption dates or missing barcodes on the fake coupons. Another clue is if the coupon is for an unusually high dollar-off such as a coupon for $3.00 off a $4.00 product. Generally, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

In addition, consider when the coupon is coming from. If the coupon is being passed around by chain e-mails, chances are that it is a fake and worthless. Legitimate coupons generally can only be printed from the site that offers them and can’t be forwarded in an e-mail as an attachment.

If you do find an online coupon that you are interested in, especially if it is from a site you are not familiar with, you may want to check The Coupon Information Corporation (CIC) to see if the coupon is a fake. The CIC is a non-profit association of consumer product manufacturers set up to fight coupon counterfeiting and fraud.


The CIC web address is Cents-off.com and should not be confused with CentsOff.com, which is a coupon clipping service.