MSE News: Sainsbury's shopper arrested for coupon fraud

Stryder

fraud is fraud .. she fraudulently lied to achieve gain.

Should have got life ... bad for all us genuine couponers that print only about 5 coupons in the names of friends and family

mrsfrugal_3

I'm new to this couponing lark and am very grateful to those on the updated coupon thread for the hints, tips and know how on how to save money on my weekly shopping, however, having read through page 1 of the coupon thread (took me forever lol) I just wanted to post this from the Q & A's on the coupon forum which seems to encourage the use of giving false email addresses......I am now very confused and concerned that someone has been arrested for doing just that??

Q: Do I need to use my real identity (email, etc) when registering for printable coupons?
A: Where possible, the 1st post will indicate whether a genuine email address is required or not (eg when verification is required by clicking a link in a received email). However, in most cases it it ok to use a false email address, since most of the coupons print instantly.

mrsfrugal_3

I'm new to this couponing lark and am very grateful to those on the updated coupon thread for the hints, tips and know how on how to save money on my weekly shopping, however, having read through page 1 of the coupon thread (took me forever lol) I just wanted to post this from the Q & A's on the coupon forum which seems to encourage the use of giving false email addresses......I am now very confused and concerned that someone has been arrested for doing just that??

Q: Do I need to use my real identity (email, etc) when registering for printable coupons?
A: Where possible, the 1st post will indicate whether a genuine email address is required or not (eg when verification is required by clicking a link in a received email). However, in most cases it it ok to use a false email address, since most of the coupons print instantly.

Middy

Healthy Start vouchers are only used to redeem against fresh fruit and veg, fresh milk and baby formula - either in the powder form or ready to drink in cartons. The baby formula has to be from birth

Today, I had a customer who bought 12 pints of milk, 2 tubs of drinking chocolate and 2 bags of frozen chicken pieces. She tried to pay for the whole shopping with these vouchers. I told her off and politely pointed to the criteria which is printed in large clear print. I only knocked off the value of the milk in the coupons

She swore at me, almost got hit by the bag of chicken pieces she hurled at me - they are those huge bags of Sainsburys Basics chicken pieces which weigh 2.5kg and almost ran out of the store with the unpaid chicken and drinking chocolate. I blocked the nearest exit with a manager blocking the other direction.

She has been barred from the store.

thepurpledragon

Other than the original MSE article, the other articles link to a story from the Daily Mail (This is Money is part of the Daily Mail Group), which I would always be wary of - they are well known for not always being, shall we say, truthful. I'm not saying that the original story of the woman given a warning was not true, but I am dubious of some of the others. The couple who used a £17.50 clubcard voucher 62 times, for example - I'm confused as to how they did that, as whenever I've used my clubcard vouchers, they are kept by the cashier when I redeem them. My point is, there is probably more to these stories than we are being led to believe by a trashy newspaper.

Middy

The thing with Sainsburys' self scans is that you can stick something thin like a car key in the gap and rattle just inside to mimic the action of a coupon being put into the coupon bin. Try to use a coupon that is either from the Catalina machine (printer next to the receipt printer), from your Nectar balance booklet or a moc you receive in the post from Sainsburys twice, it will not allow it.

I went through a self scan in Asda the other day and had a moc for their own brand. It wanted a colleague's approval before I was able to put it into the coupon bin. On Sainsburys' self scans, any voucher for more than £2.50, the colleague has to manually input the amount in.

mummyyummy1

i shop at sainsbury's and i always have trouble with them accepting any coupons, the system doesn't seem to recognize them half the time and i have found the self check outs to be even worse, so i would love to know the full story on this one too.

even on extreme couponing they often have problems with the till locking and not accepting their coupons.

[Deleted User]

Middy wrote: »

Healthy Start vouchers are only used to redeem against fresh fruit and veg, fresh milk and baby formula - either in the powder form or ready to drink in cartons. The baby formula has to be from birth

Today, I had a customer who bought 12 pints of milk, 2 tubs of drinking chocolate and 2 bags of frozen chicken pieces. She tried to pay for the whole shopping with these vouchers. I told her off and politely pointed to the criteria which is printed in large clear print. I only knocked off the value of the milk in the coupons

She swore at me, almost got hit by the bag of chicken pieces she hurled at me - they are those huge bags of Sainsburys Basics chicken pieces which weigh 2.5kg and almost ran out of the store with the unpaid chicken and drinking chocolate. I blocked the nearest exit with a manager blocking the other direction.

She has been barred from the store.

I think the world is going crazy! lol

I know there is a recession on but there is still no need for aggression , abuse , name calling , put downs and downright nasty behaviour ( and thats just on MSE!!! LOL )

Thing is I have noticed over the years that if anyone dares to question someone who has tried to misuse vouchers that the said person does get defensive , abusive and agressive...

Whereas if the majority of people who don't abuse the coupon deals had their coupon refused we WOULDN'T get aggressive , a bit upset & disappointed maybe but why get abusive when you are trying to scam the system anyway , how dare you not get away with it! ;);)

hermante

The 4th last to 2nd last digits of the barcode are the amount of money to be taken off in pence. If you think of all the possible coupons, how would any store know of every single coupon in existence? At a self-checkout scanning the coupon just tells the till to deduct a certain amount from the balance, but unless it's a retailer coupon or something that the shop knows about, it can't possibly validate it. The coupon slot doesn't do anything either, except check that some piece of paper has been put in there. So you could just put a blank piece of paper in the coupon slot and wiggle it around. Obviously, if you then reuse the same coupon many times in the same store, use a loyalty card, or pay by card, you're an idiot as well as a fraudster.

Anyway it seems that most self-checkouts now require the staff to check coupons before they will accept them. Slightly defeats the purpose of self-checkout, but I suppose it is necessary to prevent fraud. I got checked at ASDA for a 50p coupon, which held up the queue for a long time as the sole staff member was helping an old lady scan her shopping... not sure why you would go to the self checkout if you couldn't use it when the manned lanes weren't full.

On the other hand, I don't see why I should give my details to any company unless the T&Cs of the coupon say one per household or address or something. I keep a throwaway sim for phone numbers.

anika

The odd thing with these reports about this woman and the coupons is, they both say "according to MSE" So, where did MSE get this story from, I searched it and found nothing, now, maybe I havn't looked hard enough....or is this MSEs way of saying...SHUT UP ABOUT THE SHREDDIESSSSSSSSS......AND GIVE US SOMETHING ELSE TO THINK ABOUT;)