How To Spot A Fake Coupon

Have you joined the The Frugal Navy Wife on Facebook? Join over 19,000 others, make friends and share deals you find!

I cannot stress enough about where you get your printable coupon information — Budget Savvy Diva knows someone who found out about a “fake” ( they did not know at the time) coupon from another deal site and was caught and fine the $2,500!

I want to put out there ways for you to spot fake coupons. Will REAL coupons have SOME of these characteristics YES! But if your coupon has more then 1 of these characteristics it’s most likely a fake!

The deal is too good to be true: If there is a coupon for a free product for very high value coupon like $3.00 off a bag of chips this is a huge red flag. If the coupon is such a high value that you are only paying a few pennies on a NON-SALE price for the item steer clear.

The expiration date: Remember the better the coupon ( High value coupons or coupons that have no size limit) have a shorter time it is good for. So if a printable coupon has more then 6 months till its expiration date – RED FLAG

The coupon is a pdf: PDFs are VERY easy to manipulate — this is another red flag. Again not all PDF coupons are fake but still be wary. If you are directed to a PDF FROM the manufactures website the coupons should be ligit. Muller’s and Physicians formula have done this recently.

The coupon has no expiration date: Fake coupon can be spotted sometimes without having an expiration date – makes sense the person who made the fake coupon wants to use it as long as possible. Some coupons will not have an expiration’s date the only way i have gotten these coupons is from emailing the company and receiving them in the mail. A company most likely will NOT offer a PRINTABLE coupon without an expiration date.

The coupon did not have a UPC code - HUGE RED FLAG – If there is no UPC it cannot be traced. BUT at the same time if there is no UPC/Barcode how will the store scan it?

Know where you are getting the information: Some bloggers will post anything they find fake, real, scam or not. Make sure you know and trust your bloggers. Here at The Frugal Navy Wife I will only post info I trust, and deals and freebies and coupons I will take part in myself!

The real coupon was changed into a fake coupon by someone who wanted free products – this is what usually happens with fake coupons.

Hope this helps you be able to tell fake coupons from real ones. Please let me know if you find one at

TheFrugalNavyWife@gmail.com

Coupon is a Brick Coupon: This one is tricky… A brick coupon is a coupon that is the only one you can print. There are many legitimate brick coupons out there. Companies will issue this type of coupon from a manufactures Facebook – this is a yellow flag. If you print a Brick coupon and it has one or more of the above flags i wouldn’t use it.

Here is an example for YOU – Lets see if you are able to see how this coupon below is fake