SavvyShopperSite.com: Coupon counterfeiters arrested; sold free-product coupons online and on Ebay
“This case clearly demonstrates the dangers of purchasing coupons on the Internet, whether it is from independent websites, e-mail or from online auctions. Coupon buyers expose themselves to the possibility of becoming involved with counterfeits, stolen property or other criminal activities. They may also expose themselves to additional risk by providing their names, home addresses and financial information to organized crime rings.” - Bud Miller, Coupon Information Center.
- SavvyShopperSite.com: Three people arrested this morning in Phoenix
- Sold free-product counterfeit coupons on SavvyShopperSite.com and Ebay
- Four homes and 21 vehicles seized during the raid
Over the past few months, word's been getting around about SavvyShopperSite.com. The site sells free-product coupons in any quantity you wish to buy, with a few caveats -- you must spend at least $50 on coupons at a time, you must pay for your order with a Green Dot Moneypak (prepaid debit card,) and to place an order, you need a referral from a current customer. Their site also advises, "please do not share this information with people that you don't actually know. This includes forums and any public viewing areas or websites."
Why would a legitimate business have so many restrictions on how to buy from them? While some websites rave about the savings they're getting with Savvy Shopper Site coupons, other blogs began outing the site as selling counterfeits.
Some shoppers burned by the site went to the media. Here's a New Orleans WBRZ news report about a woman who filled her fridge and pantry with items purchased with Savvy Shopper Site's free-product coupons, later to be told they were counterfeit:
The Daily Journal of Missouri also featured a reader's story of purchasing counterfeit coupons from SavvyShopperSite:
An Arkansas customer found the website, www.savvyshoppersite.com, and took advantage of the offers. For example, she paid for nearly a dozen coupons for Hershey bars and used a few among others when she shopped.
Then, the store received bad news: The coupons “bounced” because they were all fake... That means that the customer, who had thought she was getting valid coupons, is stuck with coupons that are no good after paying for them.
Some of the coupons currently offered on the site are tempting to buy. For $16, you can buy a coupon to get up to 40 pounds of Eukanuba dog food for free, up to a maximum of $55. For $12, you can buy a Huggies Big Pack up to $24, for free. Four dollars will net you a coupon for free beef jerky or chicken product.
SavvyShopperSite.com and Ebay
Most seasoned couponers know to avoid purchasing coupons on Ebay -- coupon fraud on Ebay is sadly rampant. Yet there are many sellers offering too-good-to-be-true, high-value product coupons on the site each day. Where are they getting them?
Apparently, many of them have been getting the coupons from SavvyShopperSite. Savvy Shopper actively courts resellers on their site, providing a path for these counterfeits to end up in front of many more potential shoppers. With the issue of counterfeit coupons being raised in the media as of late (hundreds of counterfeit coupons have been featured on TLC's "Extreme Couponing") coupon shoppers, including myself, have been looking into where these coupons are coming from.
One of my readers wrote to an Ebay seller to let him know that the Bar-S meat coupons he was selling were counterfeit. He replied, "thanks for telling me know. all my coupons was purchase as a bulk with other seller and i resell them for $ , thanks."
Other sellers are even more open about where their coupons are coming from. This seller sent shoppers to SavvyShopperSite for more coupons right in the feedback of his or her own auctions.
Today's Arrests
This morning, the Phoenix Police Department arrested three women in conjunction with an organized criminal enterprise that sold counterfeit coupons. I spoke briefly with Bud Miller, Executive Director of the Coupon Information Center this afternoon. Bud stated, "Initial contact was made by a SWAT team removing the front door of a residence by force. The CIC and some of its members were on location in a mobile command unit watching the bust. Numerous weapons were found on the premises, and there were millions of dollars, if not tens of millions of dollars, worth of counterfeits inside. Numerous computer records have been taken and identified, including the list of customers who have purchased counterfeit coupons from them. These customers should expect contact in the future."
The CIC's press release has additional information as well. I want to thank the readers who have sent information about SavvyShopperSite.com to me over the past few months. This story is still breaking, and I will continue to cover it as more information is released.
If savvyshoppers site is the
If savvyshoppers site is the main source of all fake coupons on ebay that sellers buy from, we will see in the next few days if the number of fake free coupons start to dwindle. But if in the next 2 or 3 weeks, there is no difference in the volume of fake frees being sold on ebay, it simply means there are other big fishes that need to be caught.
I'd like to think so too, but.. it could take a while
Depending on how many coupons the resellers have in THEIR possession, it could be months before they sell out of them. Ebay limits free-coupon auctions to two at a time -- and many of the Ebay sellers have written in their own listing that they're "bulk resellers." They too probably have hundreds of these things in their possession.
The right thing for Ebay to do would be to shut down the free-product coupon auctions.
I would imagine a lot of these coupons will end up on the CIC's fraud list soon too, if they haven't already -- now that they know exactly what fakes came from SavvyShoppersite.
About some being legit....
Heres the thing about some coupons on these sites being legit - if they are, they will not be for long. Im the one who told Jill about a seller on ebay I confronted about the Bar-s coupon who said they buy in bulk and sell for $. That coupon was issued by a company that is not the size of P&G or Coca Cola, and it was easily duplicated. Im sure that SOME of the coupons those folks had at one time were legit - but with a good duplication, how would you know?
The whole premise of selling coupons is wrong. I sympathize with folks who do not get good inserts and feel they have no choice, but really, are you verifying where the services get their inserts? Do you REALLY believe you are paying just for the time and trouble and sourcing? If so, why do higher value coupons cost more?
Before scanners, people did a lot more rebates, and counterfeited the cash register tapes and sold them through bulletins and at coupon conventions (talking early 90s here. been doing this a while) Some people grabbed pads of forms, and fraudulently submitted complete deals to clearinghouses in huge quantities, by making their house an "apartment", and sending multiples. Those people caused a crackdown on refunds, and this is why you rarely see a rebate now that can be submitted without a store identified cash register receipt. I predict that manufacturers will be issuing more coupons online, in print, and will be taking precautions against counterfeiting. The result will be that smaller companies will have to devote a larger percentage of their advertising budget to free coupons, which will cause them to be limited.
We are seeing coupons.com advertised on TV, and more printables, more catalinas than ever before. I think this is the way of the future for couponing, not newspaper inserts. There will be no point to selling printables. And unfortunately, it wont be possible for folks like me to get the best coupons from several dozen inserts from buying them, friends, recycling, etc.
Coupon fraud costs us all a bundle, because it forces manufacturers to change the way they do business and the way they spend their advertising dollars.
I want the whole thing shut down on Ebay and I want to see more of these folks in jail, including users who "oh my didnt know". When you coupon on the level of folks who buy free item coupons, you know they are fake. You just dont want to so you pretend.
Had to see that again...
>> When you coupon on the level of folks who buy free item coupons, you know they are fake. You just dont want to so you pretend. <<
I agree. I think there are going to be a lot of "Oh my, I didn't know!" reactions. How could you not know? You bought a boatload of coupons online and felt they were legitimate because the seller told you they were, and because you got away with using them?
I think back to things like the situation on "Extreme Couponing," where more than 800 free-pizza coupons have been used, and the manufacturer has stated that they are NOT providing these coupons to the show's shoppers. So where are they coming from? I reached out to all of the EC participants that had used those coupons, simply asking where they came from. No one would answer that question, though one of them wrote back "I confirmed with the store directly that all the coupons I used were reimbursed and none were counterfeit."
How? Because they scanned? We know that other fake coupons used on the show were NOT reimbursed.
If you buy that many free coupons, you must know that they're fake. But so many of them justify what they're doing because they donate everything they get. Unfortunately, when you use a fake coupon to buy something, you've effectively stolen it. If you donate it, you're donating stolen goods and making yet another organization a party to the theft and fraud.
Its about time
I hope people learn not to buy coupons online at all. I have read other sites that say some coupon clip sites are legit but how do you know? I know one site that looks legit BeyondBOGO.com but there is a hidden page with all the free coupons and alot of it looks like the same coupons this site is selling. YOu have to have that link to get those. Now what can happen to the people who bought the coupons can they be arrested too? So tired of reading all these "how do I do extreme couponing" sites and everyone says just go buy free coupons on line. That is how they all do it.
I buy coupons online and am not ashamed.
I have to buy coupons through a clipping service because the Red Plum insert isn't available in my market. So it's either buy them online or go without coupons entirely. If Red Plum doesn't like this, then maybe they should make their coupons accessible to my zip code.
Also, contrary to popular opinion around here, spotting counterfeit coupons is pretty easy. Anything more than $1.50 is highly suspicious. Legit "Free" coupons typically have holograms and other security features on them. They're also typically printed on different paper than the standard coupons. And if you aren't sure, you can always crosscheck it with the coupon database at Hot Coupon World. For these reasons, I find it very hard to believe that people are accidentally buying counterfeits. They know the coupons are fake, and they don't care as long as they get their savings.
You don't know.
I do hear the "but SOME are legit!" argument from readers at times, but again -- how do you truly know? Especially in light of what's breaking today?
I just posted some more news pieces on the homepage. These people had an arsenal of guns to protect their little "home based business." Are people buying from these coupon clipping services giving ANY thought to what kind of people they're sharing their personal info with?
And, I know about the site you write about. Add /couponorder/current.pdf to the end of that URL and see what shows up.
hotcouponworld
i tried adding to that if that is what you meant and got nothing.
No
Beyondbogo.com - I was referring to the post above. Another post was added after I wrote mine. I was trying to avoid linking to it directly.
No such thing
I really don't think there is such a thing as "legit" clipping services. Supposedly you are paying for their service and not the coupon (is how they try to get around the verbage on the coupons restricting the sale of the coupon) and yet each set is priced differently. Also you have to wonder how did they come accross all those inserts. I would not imagine that they buy hundreds or thousands of papers, which would be the only legitimate way to get those inserts.
Wow! Finally!
I was wondering when something like this was going to happen. I am so glad that when I started couponing I found ethical coupon blogs and was shown the right way to coupon. Hopefully this will lead to more consequences for those that USE fraudulant coupons knowingly. If people weren't willing to take the chance on these coupons with "unkown" origins then the sellers would not be in business. For all other shoppers and ethical couponers, we have had to pay for it with the increased prices, restrictions, stricter store policies, and decrease in coupon values. I hope there is more to come for those that cheat the system and are no better than counterfeiters and shoplifters.
OMG!
A site full of HOLIER THAN THOU folks huh? People do what they have to to get by..."Let he who is without sin cast the first stone".. I can't say I wouldn't have used them if I had known about it. Times are tough, You people just want to crucify someone. I'm just saying what a lot of people visiting this site wanted to say, but didn't.
Really?
You can't say that you wouldn't have used counterfeit coupons sold by a criminal ring if it you would have saved you some money during tough times? No worries about the companies who were stolen from and the stores that ate losses on those fake coupons? No worries about the people running the ring having your personal information, address, payment info?
Wow.
I don't think anyone here is holier-than-thou. But I would never resort to criminal and illegal act that cost someone else to take a financial loss -- all to save myself money. Period.
If you would, why don't you advocate simply shoplifting the stuff and not even bothering with buying fake coupons? In the end, it's exactly the same situation. You got free stuff, and someone else paid the price for what you took.
REMEMBER...
just because other people are doing it (and seemingly getting away with it, for a time) and the fact that they are experiencing 'tough times' does NOT change the fact that it is ILLEGAL!!!! In my opinion, short of one's LIFE being threatened, is their ANY excuse for illegal and immoral behavior. I'm quite certain the judge will not say 'oh, well, you were broke that week so it's okay to do what you did'.
and BTW...
if you don't like what you're reading or what we are saying, you are perfectly welcome to leave at ANY TIME!!! We have a very helpful, kind and great group of people who are like-minded regarding couponing and keep coming back for those same reasons. Jill has been instrumental in changing our lives for the better and is kind enough to be our facilitator, teacher and does an incredible job. You have no right to judge her or any of the rest of us-our statements simply reflect frustration and disgust at people who take advantage of a system that we also use and, in the process, are changing the system for the worse, affecting all of us.