I hate coupon scammers. I’ll be honest, I was pretty ignorant of what all was going on in the world of coupon scams for a long time, then I made the mistake of joining several FaceBook groups dedicated to couponing. Wow, the things I saw in these rooms made my toes curl, I couldn’t believe what was going on out there. (In fact, frustration with these rooms is what led to our Walmart Couponing and Ad Match Sharing room with its strict no scamming policies.)
Scammers, Scammers Everywhere
One of the most common little scams these people would run is to check out in the Self-Checkout lane and scan their coupons but instead of putting the coupons in the little slot, they would just keep them or put little scraps of paper in the slot. (No wonder the average cashier cringes when they see a couponer come in their line.)
Toshiba to the Rescue
Well, I guess it has become a big enough problem that Walmart is taking steps to put an end to this little fraud. According to Coupons in the News, Toshiba (the company that makes the self checkout lanes for Walmart) has obtained a patent on a new system that will eliminate this type of scam.
Slots are out, Drawers In
Now, instead of scanning your coupon and then sliding it into a slot, a drawer opens and you place your coupon in the drawer. The drawer then shuts and is scanned. If the coupon scans, it keeps the coupon, if it doesn’t scan after 2 attempts a cashier is called over to assist.
One Less Scam for Scammers to Pull
Hopefully, this will put and end to a very common kind of fraudulent couponing activity and help stop the few bad apples from giving the rest of us bad names.
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