Thursday, July 1, 2010

Call Me Self Righteous,...

but some people have no conscience. 

I got a forward today that sounded too good to be true.  Turned out it was.  It was a pdf alleging to be of six coupons from FritoLay each for a bag of Doritos worth up to $5.00.  These could then be printed continuously and used until 12/31/10.

I thought this was a pretty generous offer and couldn't imagine how FritoLay could make money offering something like that.  So I did a little bit of checking.  Sometimes when I suspect a hoax, I really have to search to find out the truth.  Other times snopes.com has already checked it out for me and their result pops up on a quick google search.  But this time there were tons of hits.  I was curious to know what others were saying about these coupons, so I opened up a bunch of sites to satisfy my curiousity.

Come to find out, internet circulated coupons constitute a huge area of fraud.  The problem is extensive enough that the CIC, which is a coupon use watch dog group established in the 80s, keeps a data base of all the fraudulent coupons floating around.  Many stores no longer accept even legitimate on-line coupons because they cannot usually tell the difference.

I just can't believe that people create these fake coupons and send them everywhere.  I also found a thread on a message board debating the morality of using them after one has found out they are fraudulent.  This just fries me.  Do people think Doritos grow on trees?

So, don't use internet circulated coupons without checking up on them.  You may inadvertently be committing a crime.

And do check out the above link.  You will be amazed at all the commonly used products for which there are fake coupons floating around.  Many companies offer rewards for finding the perpetrator.

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