How to spot fake coupons | News

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How to spot fake coupons

Submitted by Andy Wise, Chief Consumer Investigator/Andy's Restaurant Scorecard

Monday, July 16th, 2012, 12:26pm

Topics: News, Shopping & Services

(WMC-TV) - >$5.

That could be the official logo of coupon fraud.

Josh Elledge, founder of SavingsAngel.com and CouponIntegrity.com, said any coupon offering more than $5 off the retail price needs a second look. Elledge said that's one of the signs of a counterfeit coupon.

Other signs:

* COUPONS FOR SALE ON EBAY. Elledge said they claim you are only paying for shipping or postage, but he said you are most likely bidding on counterfeits.

* COUPONS DISTRIBUTED AS PDF (ADOBE ACROBAT) FILES VIA E-MAIL.

* LONG EXPIRATION DATES. There are legitimate coupons out there that have no expiration dates, but you must confirm they are the actual manufacturers' coupons. Elledge said the typical life of a coupon is three months.

* VALUE INCONSISTENCIES.

* MISSING BAR CODES OR BAR CODES THAT CANNOT BE SCANNED.

* MISSING LEGAL COPY. If the fine-print legal disclaimer is missing from the coupon, that's a sign the bad guy failed to include it when the coupon was counterfeited.

* TYPOS. Elledge said counterfeiters are notoriously poor spellers, especially of products' brand names.