Combating fraud wherever it lurks
Just like other forms of legal tender, wherever coupons and vouchers are accepted somewhere in the process you’ll find fraud lurking. You just don’t get one without the other.
But how common is it?
Despite its constant presence and the media’s willingness to write stories about it, fraud is not as common-place as you might think. There is simply not that many people willing to go to the lengths and risks they must to do it. However, there will always be a few who will try because coupon reproduction and printing techniques have become more sophisticated.
For example, at the smaller end of the scale, consumers may use computer software to tamper with the barcodes and change, for example, a 50p discount so it scans as a £5 discount. Or perhaps they colour photocopy a coupon several times or reproduce it digitally so it can be printed several times.
At the other end of the scale, there’s large-scale fraud such as:
- In 2008 an air-freight pallet containing millions of counterfeit coupons from China was intercepted by customs and excise going into Italy
- A Texas firm linked to the fraudulent redemption of hundreds of millions of dollars of manufacturers' coupons.
But after 40 years in the business, our detection capabilities have kept pace with the fraudsters.
Valassis is very good at spotting irregularities, even down to tiny differences in colour shades or slightly wider spacing within elements of a coupon. And as we work to help enhance the security features of Point-of-Sales scanning systems, it will become even harder for fraudsters to get away with it.
You can rest assured that, with our expertise in coupon design and campaign planning, your promotional campaign will carry a reduced risk of fraud in whatever guise it tries to rear its head.
print this page