In This Article
As the year-end shopping season begins with Black Friday and Cyber Monday approaching fast, the promises of huge discounts and unbeatable coupon deals make online shopping even more tempting than ever.
However, shadowing behind some of those flashy “50% off” coupons and “limited-time” offers are scams designed to rob you of your hard-earned money instead of filling your cart with saving deals. Fraudsters know this season is prime time for bargain hunters, and they use cleverly disguised coupon scams to lure even the most aware online shoppers into their traps.
it’s important to be aware of the various scams related to discount coupons. This guide highlights the most common coupon scams, which range from fake websites and mobile applications to counterfeit discount codes. By familiarizing yourself with these scams, you can enjoy genuine savings while keeping your personal and payment information secure.
1. Phishing Coupons and Deals
At the beginning of the holiday season, scammers begin flooding your emails, social media direct messages, and texts with fake attractive discount offers and coupons, especially from the brands you love to shop at.
These online coupons and deals link to a website designed to look like a legitimate retailer as if your favorite retailers offer these discounts. However, the website either contains malware or immediately asks you to provide your login details, personal information, and credit card information, all of which are then stolen by scammers.
These phishing coupons and deals are purposefully designed to make them look convincing enough for consumers, and many easily fall prey before they even get a chance to think about it.
2. Fake Mobile Apps
There have been many cases where scammers pitch the victim to download a fake mobile app that actually looks like a legitimate app. The app offers coupons, discount codes, and exclusive deals. Once the app has been installed, the victim is then asked to sign in using personal details. This is when the app captures all the data.
The scam is not limited to capturing data; it also sometimes involves the installation of malware on the mobile device that compromises the Android phone’s security, which means the scammer will have access to all the future and any old data stored on the device.
3. Fake Coupon Generators
Scammers create legitimate websites and online tools; however, they generate fake coupons and discount codes for well-known and popular retailers or products that you might be interested in purchasing.
These sites are smartly designed to collect your personal details, such as email address and payment information, in exchange for a discount code. These counterfeit codes and coupons won’t work on the retailer’s website. However, scammers will have access to the credit card details that they stole, which might result in financial loss.
4. Fake Coupon Sites
Although there are many legitimate coupon sites where you can find genuine discount codes and coupons that actually work, there are countless fake websites that people will come across when they begin searching for coupons online.
These websites look real and work exactly like an authentic coupon site, but the goal is to trick users into providing personal details. They ask you to fill out a form or sign up for an account on their site to claim the discount coupon.
Little did the victims know they were being phished for their data and their identities were being stolen. Upon signing up, the site will also provide you with a coupon, which will be counterfeit and won’t work.
5. Social Media Coupon Scams
We all are very active on social media platforms, and that is exactly where official retailers share their discount deals and coupons, especially when holiday shopping seasons and specials like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas deals are around the corner.
Even though retailers offer genuine deals, scammers use this opportunity by running fake advertisements and campaigns. These redirect the targeted people to fraudulent websites specially designed to steal personal information and payment details by tricking them into making payments for counterfeit products.
Some of these sites even prompt you to install software that could possibly be malware, which can result in compromised device security, malicious attacks, and loss of precious data through possible ransomware attacks.
6. Survey Scams
Survey scams are among the most common and widely popular, especially in online shopping. Scammers use certain websites and advertisement platforms to run their campaigns and entice people to an unbelievably fantastic discount coupon for their favorite store in exchange for completing a short survey.
These surveys are designed to collect as much information as possible where the victim provides them with all the identity details, usually including their social media profiles and email addresses.
These details are then sold to third-party data sellers for further fake promotions or used by scammers to bait other people from similar demographics. Meanwhile, the victim waits for the promised coupon to arrive in their email.
7. Fake QR Codes
Fraudsters create fake QR codes that are distributed publicly or through social media channels to cheat innocent victims. Although these QR codes seem genuine, they are designed to lead users to a fake website from where malware is installed on their devices.
Then, whenever the victim enters a password or credit card details on their infected device, these malware secretly steal their sensitive information. Scammers usually opt to distribute these QR codes, which are genuine codes found on posters and social media channels. People usually look for discounts and deals for savings.
To protect yourself, it is always recommended that you verify the authenticity of any QR codes before scanning them through the store or shop’s official retail channels.
8. Subscription Traps and Offers
Subscription traps are specially designed to offer you a service either for free or at such an insignificant cost that you won’t even give it a second thought when signing up. Scammers sometimes bundle these types of subscriptions with a small discount or offer. However, they have hidden fees or sometimes costly recurring charges, which are harder to cancel.
These scams are usually done when you sign up for a service online, where they retain your payment details and continue to draw a significant amount from your credit card.
To avoid such subscriptions, always read the fine print and terms and conditions before signing up or agreeing to make the first payment. You should also perform some research or check reviews before providing your bank details.
9. Counterfeit Printed or Digital Coupons
Forged coupons are printed or sent by scammers through email in bulk during the year-end sale seasons, usually offering unbelievably huge discounts that don’t exist. When the victim uses these coupons at the retail stores, they are immediately denied. However, the victim’s data is collected in the process, which damages the consumer’s trust as they won’t get the promised discount.
To increase awareness, one should always check whether the coupon is legitimate. You can verify the genuineness of the coupon by double-checking the logo and the details mentioned on it. Then, you can verify these with the retailer.
10. Gift Card Scams
Scammers usually approach the victim through email, social media messages, calls, or text messages to convince them to buy discount coupons through gift cards issued by companies like Google Play, Amazon, eBay, and Apple. They will ask you for the details of your gift card, including the card number and PIN, which are usually located on the back of the card.
Scammers are usually after those two numbers. They will use different tactics to get the gift card number from you. If you are out of funds on the gift card, the scammer will ask you to buy a gift card from a specific store, usually pretending to be from a genuine retailer. Once you have purchased and shared gift card details with the scammer, there’s no recovery.
The general rule of thumb you need to follow in such a scenario is that whenever a caller, email, or website asks you to buy a gift card and wants you to share the details with them, that’s a scam.
11. Bait and Switch Scam
Bait-and-switch scams are thought-provoking discount scams, and many people fall victim without even realizing it. Let’s learn how the fraud actually works.
Scammers bait victims with a discount coupon for a product they are interested in. The moment the victim tries to claim the coupon to make the purchase, the item is shown as unavailable, and instead, the scammer redirects the victim to some other website, where they end up overpaying for a cheap product.
People do not realize this scam because they are looking for discount offers and deals online to save money. Google search is the best place to find such deals, and hard-to-believe discount coupons offered by scammers tempt people.
12. Membership Club Scam
There has always been a group of scammers actively enrolling consumers in membership clubs for coupons and discounts, which is usually a subscription-based service where nominal charges are deducted monthly from the victim’s credit card or bank account without any authorization.
These scams are usually conducted through telemarketing and fraudulent websites. The scammer makes the targeted person believe they are a bank official willing to offer an advance loan. The victim shares the credit card details for approval. However, the scammer uses the same details to sign them up for a membership club that incurs a fixed monthly fee.
That’s not it. Even if they are signed up, they never receive or avail themselves of any discounts. These membership clubs are fraudulent services designed by scammers to cheat people out of money, resulting in financial loss.
13. Fake Donation and Charity Organization Coupons
Scammers create fake charity organizations and donation coupons, exploiting the victim’s humanity and selflessness to gain their trust and giving them the impression that using a particular coupon code will directly benefit a charity organization.
These scammers exploit recent disasters to manipulate people into buying through their fake charity coupons and websites, which, in most cases, are created by the scammers themselves to make their claims look legitimate.
Concluding Thoughts
As you begin to get excited about the Black Friday and Cyber Monday coupon codes, always remember that a moment of caution can save you from any type of scam. Spotting a fake coupon or illegitimate website can leave you feeling anxious, but staying attentive and trusting your instincts will keep your personal information, credit card details, and personal devices safe.
To avoid any of the risks we have discussed in the blog post and to protect yourself from any possible scam while searching for coupon codes, it is important to opt for only trusted and legitimate resources, as they will never ask you for your personal identity and don’t forget to verify website URL before taking any further steps. Never pay for a coupon or discount, as all these offers are always free.
By being aware of these common online coupon traps, you can confidently enjoy this holiday shopping season while collecting authentic deals and saving significant money with discount coupons.
