A friend of mine at work today was telling me his wife found this coupon on the internet (NOT Coupons4Utah!). Innocently thinking she had stumbled on a great coupon offer she printed one and took it to Harmon's to include with her weekly shopping (she had 1 coupon). When she got to the check out, she was not only informed by Harmon's that the coupon was fraudulent, but they also called security over to question her. Use of a fraudulent coupon is illegal. It's really no different than passing around counterfeit money. Refer to this article here.
Now, I must say, if I was new to the internet coupon world I would turn and run the other way and never print another internet coupon.
So…..How do you tell? We work very hard here to verify all the coupons we post. I personally call the companies of coupons that look fishy to me. A recent example was both the Lowe's and Arby's coupons. But, as you saw with the Kmart coupon, even we can be fooled.
First off, remember the old adage “If it seems to good to be true…”. If the coupon is for a completely FREE item and is found just floating around the internet, it is most likely an invalid coupon. FREE coupons are most often in a newspaper circular of come via mail with valid markings on them. Like foil stickers or on security paper.
Coupons printed from Coupon.com, Redplum and SmartSource are also trustworthy worry free coupons. Coupons that come in a PDF format with unlimited prints always deserve a second look. What is the website are they coming from? Is it the companies website?
There are a couple of websites that can help you out. One is called CIC – Coupon Information Corporation. They have a page of recent counterfeit coupons. You will notice that the Doritos coupon isn't on the list. I found it on snopes.com another good resource. Just type in a search of the coupon you are questioning. The best thing we can do is to use common sense. If a coupon sounds to good to be true….you know the rest. What company would put a coupon out there for a FREE product and not issue some kind of print limit? None.
I hope this helps. If you're new to coupon printing you might like to check out our FAQ page. If you find a fraudulent coupon out there let us know so we can share it with others.
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