{"id":13987,"date":"2019-07-27T15:23:57","date_gmt":"2019-07-27T19:23:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thefatdollar.com\/fatdollarblog\/?p=13987"},"modified":"2019-07-27T15:23:57","modified_gmt":"2019-07-27T19:23:57","slug":"is-that-a-counterfeit-coupon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thefatdollar.com\/fatdollarblog\/is-that-a-counterfeit-coupon\/","title":{"rendered":"Is That a Counterfeit Coupon?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n
\n

\"scatteredHave you ever seen a grocery coupon offered online or as an attachment to an email that seemed to good to be true?<\/p>\n

I learned a hard lesson about counterfeit coupons several years ago.  I don\u2019t recall the source of the coupon,  but I had printed an internet coupon good for a free rental at Blockbuster Video (yes, it was awhile ago!).  It did not even occur to me that the coupon might be a fraud.<\/p>\n

My then teenaged son and his girlfriend were going to Blockbuster to pick out some movies to watch.  I suddenly felt generous.  \u201cHere,\u201d  I said, \u201cyou can have my coupon.  Get yourself a free movie rental.\u201d  They were thrilled.<\/p>\n

They were not so thrilled when they tried to rent the movie with my coupon.  The coupon was rejected.  To make matters worse, the manager pulled them aside and accused them of creating the coupon themselves and trying to commit fraud at the store.  He even mentioned that he should call the police.<\/p>\n

They were shaken.  I was mortified.  I still cringe when I think of it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since then, I have been overly cautious about printing or downloading free coupons from the internet.   For the most part, I only print coupons from trusted sites like SmartSource.com <\/a>, ValPak.com <\/a>, Grocerysmarts.com<\/a>, RedPlum.com<\/a> and Coupons.com<\/a> as well as directly from a product\u2019s company website, such as Purina.com.  <\/a><\/p>\n

Better yet, I usually download coupons directly to my grocery store card.  My grocery store offers digital grocery coupons from a variety of name-brand sources. <\/p>\n

How do you know if a coupon is counterfeit or legitimate?<\/h4>\n

There is a website, that if I had know about it back then, might have shown me that the coupon I had was a fraud.  The site is the CouponInformation Center.com.  It does not seem to be as vibrant or as frequently updated as it has been in the past, but the site still has good information.<\/p>\n

Try visiting the Coupon Information Center and looking up your coupon. If it is listed on the list at the Coupon Information Center www.couponinformationcenter.com<\/a> then you can save yourself a dose of mortification and throw it away. <\/p>\n

Currently, the site is listing, among others, these counterfeit grocery coupons:<\/p>\n