Coupon Fraud Alert: Nature Made Vitamin Coupons Withdrawn
Pharmavite LLC. has withdrawn the $3.00 and $5.00 off any Nature Made
coupons that were distributed exclusively in Walgreens’ “Diabetes & You” magazine
and associated website for Nature Made products sold at Walgreens stores.
Pharmavite LLC is taking this action due to unauthorized coupon redemptions at other retailers; the unauthorized transfer of coupons; and the unauthorized reproduction of the coupons on certain websites.
Here is the press release for more information
Since this is the third time in as many weeks that this has happened, his is the perfect opportunity to talk a little about coupon fraud. Lately, it appears what is happening are bloggers are taking high-dollar coupons that are only released for a SPECIFIC store in a SPECIFIC area, scanning them, converting them to pdf files and making the widely available for anyone to print.
As a blogger, I can understand this desire. The more eyeballs on your site, the more money (potentially) you can make. I also understand this as a couponer. Who wouldn’t want to save $5 on any Nature Made product? If you use that coupon at Walmart, you can get FREE vitamins and overage. Shoot, if you print enough, you can get almost unlimited FREE groceries with the overage! (If you every catch me in person, ask me about the things I’ve seen people do once you tell them that using a certain coupon in a certain way is fraudulent. The internet is full of crazy people)
The problem here is this is clearly coupon fraud. In fact, 99.99999% of the time, if you print a pdf coupon, you are committing coupon fraud. Virtually no one releases coupons through pdf specifically because it is impossible to limit the number of prints and it’s very easy to change the coupon language to remove limits on amounts you can use or where you can use them.
Another problem is every time an issue like this arises, steps are taken to make couponing more difficult. All you need to do is take a look at the ridiculous language on a P&G coupon to see the lengths these companies will go to to make life difficult for couponers.
In short, if you see a blogger offering a pdf coupon to print, report them to the company that coupon is for and DON’T PRINT THE COUPON!
Sometimes when we talk about coupon fraud, it isn’t taken very seriously because it is assumed that no one ever faces any consequences if they commit fraud. Let me assure you, that is not true. Be careful and protect yourself.
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I really think your post should be edited. There are more legitimate pdf coupons than you might think, and though I agree that it makes them impossible to limit, some companies either don’t mind- perhaps because they haven’t had these types of problems yet, or are new to coupon producing. A lot of natural brands that are less mainstream release pdfs or even jpg coupons. Even some well known mainstream brands release them on their own website or newsletters. Simply organic and 3M are 2 examples that almost regularly had a year long pdf sheet of coupons. I wish you wouldn’t tell people to call ‘fraud’ willy-nilly just because they happen to see a pdf posted. The best thing to do is check the CIC website to see if the coupon is on the fraud list, keep in touch with your couponing community, and use your best judgement. Also, see if you can trace the coupon back to the original source. Some sites are only allowed to post a link to coupons where they are hosted, to avoid this exact problem.
I’d also like to point out that the Walgreens Diabetes & You magazine is also posted in an online version; the coupons appear there as well, and are not voided out by the company. Some couponers have taken it upon themselves to question Walgreens by facebook and other methods to ask if these coupons were ok to print from the online edition of the magazine and use in stores, and they got a “Yes” from Walgreens reps, so this probably did not start out as intentional misuse. I can understand if manufacturers disagree with this practice, and am glad light was shed on their point of view. I just wanted to point out that the coupons were orginally used and posted with what was thought to be full permission from Walgreens.
Thank you for your thoughtful reply and you certainly bring up some points I could have been clearer on. I whole-heartedly agree that the term “coupon fraud” is used far too much and we should probably come up with terms that would differentiate between someone using a coupon incorrectly because the coupon is unclear and someone willfully seeking to defraud a company by making a limited run coupon a pdf available for wide release. Unfortunately, there isn’t a quick and easy way to make that distinction.
The Bayer coupon in question was scanned by a blogger that unfortunately has a history of doing this. He has made a niche for himself being a “black hat” couponer. I wanted to make people aware of the issues surrounding this coupon. I am busy for the rest of the day but for the sake of clarity I will post your comment within the body of the blog post so the full story is heard. Thank you again.
I had not heard about a Bayer coupon being scanned.. that does sound like pretty cut and dry fraud to turn a non-ip coupon into a printable, I was mainly referring to the Nature Made coupons in this post as I know that they tend to appear in pdf form right from Walgreens. I didn’t think people were still trying to pull things as bold as that with the coupon rules constantly evolving, but I guess that is a bit naive to think! Thanks very much on the heads up and your crazy work on this blog.
I also wanted to point out that there is a debate on what constitutes a store coupon and a manufacturer coupon.. usually the definition I have seen is that if a coupon is labeled and barcoded as a manufacturer’s coupon but also has either a store logo or a phrase such as “redeemable at X” or “at X,” it is ok to use at other retailers unless it strictly states “Only at X store.” It is a stretch to me and honestly a judgement call, not to mention YMMV, but luckily I have a store in the area that has a specific clause for this exact thing in it’s coupon policy.
You’ve got it. If it says “Manu Q” it is a manu Q regardless of what other store logos it has. The only national chain that I’m aware of that has an issue with using manu Qs with store logos is Dollar Tree but I haven’t really looked too much into it.
That info about the Nature Made Q didn’t come from me, it was copied directly from the CIC press release. I figure they know what they are talking about more than I do when it comes to coupon fraud.