Combat Coupon Fraud

ACT NOW TO COMBAT COUPON FRAUD

Brands should act now to make money off coupons more secure following a major upsurge in scams that have already seen hundreds of thousands of pounds lost.

Neil Barnes, managing director of promotional logistics and security specialists, Enable, says that rather than scrap voucher schemes the brands need to stay a step ahead of the fraudsters.

Retailers and brand managers have been reporting a rise in fraud in the last few months with some incidents of up to £80,000 being cheated out of food brands by misuse of vouchers. An investigation by the Daily Mail has found that fraudsters have been changing bar codes to get higher values from vouchers.

Neil Barnes said: “There is a pattern emerging in the frauds being reported. Some are being carried out by sophisticated gangs changing coupons; others are customers and even staff in supermarkets recycling vouchers so that they can be used multiple times.

“In tough economic times there is always a rise in these sorts of frauds so the surge in the last few months is predictable. Brands need to act and ensure that they use more sophisticated methods of redeeming vouchers to keep ahead of the fraudsters.”

The first reaction of the industry has been to start withdrawing vouchers but the team at Enable Marketing and Promotions say that some simple steps can be taken to safeguard vouchers.

Said Neil Barnes: “Bar codes can be too easily manipulated so it is better to use them for low value redemptions only, with higher value coupons using a different method.

“There are ways to ensure that when vouchers are redeemed part of the voucher is destroyed so it is invalidated for re-presentation. For high value redemptions specialist inks and papers can often hold the key or a tamper-proof unique number that has to be keyed in by a till operator before it can be redeemed.

Other options…..

“We carry out security and logistics checks for all kinds of promotions, some of which have high prize values that would attract the interest of fraudsters if security is not right.

“Of course whatever security methods are used, they must not compromise any regulations and often the key is in carefully crafting terms and conditions.”

Retailers or brand managers encountering a fraud problem or seeking a security check should contact Enable on 01934 853770.