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The only coupons I use on a regular basis are ones the grocery store sends me, so I had no idea how big a problem counterfeit coupons are until I read about a Virginia couple being busted for perpetrating a massive coupon scam. It cost retailers and manufacturers over $31 million in losses, a number the FBI says may be conservative.
Lori Ann Talens was sentenced to 12 years in prison for operating the counterfeit coupon scheme from April 2017 to May 2020. She used Facebook and other social media websites and apps to find coupon enthusiasts and sell them the fakes. She used an encrypted app to communicate with them and, to help ensure they assumed risk in the scheme, required them to provide their ID and evidence they had prior experience using counterfeit coupons. Her husband was sentenced to 7 years as an accomplice.
The scheme unraveled when one of her customers reported her to the Coupon Information Center (CIC), which purchased some of the coupons and reported her to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service after verifying they were counterfeit. CIC is an alliance of manufacturers dedicated to coupon integrity.
Talens had the necessary computer equipment and skills to create and produce a wide variety of counterfeit coupons that were almost indistinguishable from real ones, right down to the barcodes. The biggest difference was that the values were usually much higher, in some cases for almost the full purchase price – for example, a coupon for $24.99 off a $25 box of diapers. Once she created the coupons, Talens or her husband shipped them to the other crooks across the country. They were paid through a variety of means including cryptocurrency.
When law enforcement agents executed a search warrant on the couple’s Virginia Beach home, they seized nearly $1 million worth of counterfeit coupons and found images on their computer for over 13,000 different coupons. As a side hustle, the couple defrauded Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program out of $43,000 by applying for benefits they weren’t entitled to.
A fake coupon would be honored at the store if it scanned correctly and not be detected until presented to the manufacturer after processing through a coupon clearinghouse in many cases, which could take months. The retailer would be denied reimbursement for the fake coupon, although as a Postal Inspector said, “It ultimately funnels down to us, the consumers” in the form of higher prices to cover the losses.
It appears that all of the coupons involved in this scam were paper, but fake online coupons are also a problem. The FBI and CIC offer these tips to avoid counterfeit coupons:
- Never pay a fee for coupons or join a group that gives you access to them.
- Be suspicious if an online coupon doesn’t come from the manufacturer or a recognized coupon distributor. If you’re directed to a third-party site and asked to provide personal information to get the coupon, it’s likely a scam. Malware could be downloaded to your computer.
- Be suspicious of any coupon valued near or above the retail price of the item.
- Trust your gut if a coupon doesn’t look right, including having no expiration date, appearing to be photocopied, or containing misspelled words or bad grammar.
Article by: Randy Hutchinson president of the Better Business Bureau of the Mid-South.
Republished from The Jackson Sun.