Saving money with coupons is a smart way to stretch your budget. However, there’s a significant difference between savvy couponing and engaging in practices that constitute fraud or are outright illegal. While extreme couponing techniques might push boundaries, certain actions cross the line, potentially leading to legal trouble, being banned from stores, or owing money back. Understanding what constitutes coupon misuse or fraud is crucial. Here are 11 couponing “tricks” that are actually illegal or fraudulent.
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1. Using Counterfeit Coupons
Creating fake coupons or knowingly using coupons you suspect are counterfeit is illegal. This includes photocopying legitimate coupons or using digitally created fakes shared online (often promising impossibly high values, like free products or huge dollar amounts off). Manufacturing or using counterfeit coupons constitutes fraud and can lead to criminal charges.
2. Using Coupons for the Wrong Product
Manufacturer coupons are intended for specific products, often specifying brand, size, quantity, and variety. Intentionally using a coupon for a different, cheaper item, or a different size/quantity than specified, to get a discount you aren’t entitled to is misuse and considered fraud. Cashiers are trained to check this, but self-checkout makes misuse easier, though still improper.
3. Stacking Multiple Manufacturer Coupons on One Item
Most manufacturers explicitly state “Limit one coupon per purchase” on their coupons. Attempting to use multiple manufacturer coupons for the same single item is prohibited by the terms and constitutes fraud if successful. (Note: This is different from legitimately stacking *one* manufacturer coupon with *one* store coupon, if allowed by store policy).
4. Using Expired Coupons
Coupons have clear expiration dates. Knowingly presenting an expired coupon and hoping the cashier or system doesn’t notice is fraudulent misuse. While accidents happen, intentionally using expired coupons relies on deception.
5. Illegally Acquiring or Selling Coupons
Coupons often state they are “void if sold, purchased, transferred, or exchanged.” Buying coupons (especially large quantities of high-value ones) from online sellers or coupon clipping services can violate these terms. Selling coupons without authorization from the manufacturer is also typically prohibited and can be illegal, particularly if involving counterfeit or stolen coupons. Diverting coupons intended for newspaper inserts and selling them whole is also problematic.
6. Abusing Digital Coupon Codes
With online shopping, fraudsters might try to guess or use bots to rapidly test coupon codes, exploit system glitches (“glitching”) to apply discounts improperly (like stacking non-stackable codes), or reuse single-use codes. Creating multiple fake accounts to repeatedly redeem “new customer” or one-time-use promotional codes is also a common form of digital coupon abuse.
7. Altering Coupons (Physical or Digital)
Physically changing the terms, value, expiration date, or barcode on a printed coupon is forgery and illegal. Similarly, digitally altering coupon codes or images to misrepresent the offer is fraudulent.
8. Improperly Redeeming Rebate Offers with Coupons
Some rebate offers require a purchase receipt and proof of purchase (like UPCs) and may explicitly state they cannot be combined with other coupons for the same item. Submitting for a rebate using a receipt where a coupon significantly reduced the purchase price, contrary to the rebate terms, can be considered fraudulent.
9. Coupon Return Fraud
Purchasing an item using high-value coupons and then returning the item without the receipt (or with a receipt not showing the coupon), hoping to get the full, pre-coupon price back, is a form of return fraud. Retailers track coupon usage and returns to combat this.
10. Using Coupons Intended for Others
Sometimes coupons are targeted – mailed to specific households, intended for employees, or part of a specific loyalty program tier. Using a coupon clearly not intended for you (e.g., an employee discount coupon if you are not an employee) is misuse.
11. Exploiting “Coupon Glittering”
This refers to altering legitimate coupons, often by changing the barcode or product description slightly, to make them apply to different (often more expensive) products or give a larger discount than intended. This is a form of counterfeiting/fraud.
Coupon Ethically and Legally
Legitimate couponing involves using valid coupons according to their printed terms and conditions and adhering to store policies. Engaging in activities like using fakes, applying coupons to wrong items, unauthorized stacking, or exploiting system glitches moves from savvy saving into the realm of fraud. Retailers and manufacturers invest heavily in fraud detection, and consequences can range from rejected coupons and store bans to civil demands for repayment and even criminal prosecution in serious cases involving large-scale counterfeiting or organized fraud rings. Stick to the rules to keep your savings legitimate.
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