Wrong is Wrong: Coupon Fraud and the SnipSnap App

Wrong is wrong: Coupon Fraud and the SnipSnap App

Do you remember the saying your parents told you a thousand and four times when you were a kid?  “So if all your friends jumped off a clip, would you?”

In my teen years I remember rolling my eyes at that.  Like, “Duh – of course I wouldn’t jump off a cliff because that would be stupid.  But {insert outlandish thing that I wanted to do here} is not stupid.  It’stotally cool.”

I’m going to try to refrain from using that phrase with Bug.  I found a replacement phrase, “Wrong is wrong even if everyone is doing it.  Right is right even if no one is doing it.”

In my years as a coupon (almost 4 now) I have noticed that a lot of times, coupon fraud is looked at as, “Well, if they’re getting away with it, then I can do it too.”   Or “If that cashier doesn’t know what he’s doing and he pushes through the coupons that I shouldn’t be using then it’s his fault – I didn’t do anything wrong” (even if you knowingly handed him coupons that you should not have used.

But guess what,WRONG IS WRONG.

I read about a new app last night that is gaining ground because it has been featured on some news and talk shows.  But the app is as shady as they come.  And it seems like everyone is using it and if you get a store cashier that’s never seen it before, they’ll allow it because they don’t know any better.  But you know what,WRONG IS WRONG.

The app is called SnipSnap and it claims that by photographing your coupons with the app it turns them into digital coupons.

Now, let me stop right here and point out.   Anyone can make and app.  Heck, I could make an app.  And well, if I didn’t want to, for a few hundred bucks I can find a techie friend to make an app.  My app could allow you to alter the first moon landing video to put your face in the space suit, a pair of polka dotted under wear on the flagpole and put spider monkeys in the background.  Does this mean you landed on the moon, ran underwear up a flagpole and met spider monkeys because you have it on video?  NO.

I realize that seems like an absurd analogy but the truth is, just because you take a picture of a coupon it does not make it a “mobile” or “digital” coupon.  I mean, phones have had picture taking capabilities for YEARS.  If taking a picture of a coupon made it “mobile” people would’ve been doing it already.  Just because this app comes along and tells you you can – it still doesn’t mean you actually can.

Why not?

Here’s the scoop on where “mobile” or “digital” coupons come from.

Target -You sign up for text alerts and Target sends you a link in your text message that takes you to a Target coupon page where your mobile coupons are.  There is a single use barcode that allows you to only use that coupon one time.  The Target mobile coupon site knows when you have used your coupon.

Cellfire – I don’t know a lot about Cellfire because none of the stores in my region use it.  I can tell you that it’s a third party app that has store approved (like Kroger) coupons in it that you can redeem a limited number of times for savings at the register

SavingStar – Also a third party program that has store approved coupons that can be linked to your store loyalty cards.  Only unlike Cellfire, the savings don’t come off at the register, they are refunded to you after the fact.

CVS – CVS emails coupons occasionally.  You can print these and use them in store or in a lot of cases, you can present the email on your smartphone and they can scan the single use sent only to YOU barcode to apply your coupon and then it cannot be used again because the system knows that that barcode as been redeemed.

I could go on and on, but every store that uses mobile or digital coupons will fall into one of the three categories above.

The key points here are that:

1) The store has issued these coupons as “digital”  or “mobile” coupons.

2) There are UNIQUE, single use barcodes on the coupons to allow for them to only be scanned once.

The SnipSnap app claims you can take a paper coupon, photograph it and regardless of the single use barcode on it, you may use it multiple times and/or share it with others to use it multiple times.

Photographing a coupon does not make it a “digital” or “mobile” coupon.  If the store did not release it to be a mobile coupon then it is not a mobile coupon.  You might as well plug it into my fake moonlanding app and try to use it on the moon for all the good it’s going to do you.

But the sentiment on the SnipSnap Facebook page seems to be, “Other people are using it, so why can’t I?” and “I found a cashier at such-and-such store that will let me use it.”  WRONG IS WRONG.

Still not convinced there is anything wrong with the app?

• Kroger and Target have already alerted all stores to alert all cashiers todeny anything on the SnipSnap app.
• Victoria’s Secret will not honor any free panty coupons photographed with the SnipSnap app.
• The coupon they’re promoting at the top of their Facebook is the Free CVS Body Wash coupon that was emailed to specific people who had liked the CVS Minute Clinic page during a specific promotion.  Each coupon had a unique barcode that can only be redeemed once.  But SnipSnap says, “Hey take a picture of this, share it and use it over and over!”
• This woman STOLE $2,000 worth of merchandise from Kmart using a $10/$10 purchase coupon she photographed with the SnipSnap app.  A $10/$10 coupon that was supposed to be used on ONE transaction – she used it OVER and OVER and OVER some 40+ times!

So please, steer clear of the SnipSnap App.  Yeah, it may look great.  It may look like people are getting away with tons of cheap and free stuff but…

WRONG IS WRONG.

Photo Source: Uploaded by user via Tabitha on Pinterest